The higher the news literacy, the wider the partisan gap on misinformation acceptance? The three-way interaction effects of news literacy, partisanship, and exposure to partisan YouTube channels on misinformation acceptance

Abstract

Drawing on two competing hypotheses from the prevention and partisan gap frameworks, this study tests how news literacy, partisanship, and exposure to partisan YouTube channels interact to influence misinformation acceptance. Partisan YouTube channels in this study refer to a type of soft journalistic content with a partisan perspective. Panel survey data ( N = 808) collected during the 2020 South Korean General Election campaign were analyzed. Supporting the partisan gap hypothesis, the results show that when exposed to partisan YouTube channels, those with higher news literacy were more likely to process misinformation in a biased manner, such that party-congenial misinformation is more likely to be accepted, while party-uncongenial misinformation is more likely to be rejected with an increase in news literacy level. This indicates that the effects of news literacy on misinformation acceptance vary depending on political factors. Furthermore, in the context of politically biased media, the partisan gap widens among those with greater news literacy.