“That’s just, like, your opinion” - European citizens’ ability to distinguish fact from opinion

One crucial aspect of democracy is that citizens are informed about current affairs and relevant political and societal developments (Strömbäck, 2005). Following this aspiration, trustworthy information by the news media is one of the cornerstones of a well-functioning democracy, as the reliance on such information enables citizens to form sound political opinions and take subsequent decisions. Yet it is becoming increasingly difficult for citizens to rely on such information, not the least because in the current media landscape, reliable facts are mixed with dubious claims, unsubstantiated opinions, or outright lies. In this situation, the ability to distinguish facts from other types of information in mediated content is crucial, but we know little about how well equipped citizens are to make these distinctions. In our study, we focus on the differentiation between facts and opinions in line with the journalistic claim to separate objective reporting from commentary-style writing, assuming that “a fact can be proven true or false while an opinion can be neither right nor wrong” (Cohen et al., 1989, p. 13; see also Graves, 2017; Kuklinski et al., 1998). The ability to distinguish between facts and opinions is part of what Jones-Jang and colleagues (2021, p. 375) call information literacy, i.e., the “intellectual framework for understanding, finding, evaluating, and using information”. Importantly, a higher level of information literacy increases the likelihood that citizens can also identify fake news. However, when considering that the thin line between opinionated reporting and fact-based news may be challenging to draw even for journalistic professionals (e.g., Berkel, 2006; Meachem, 2020; Nygaard, 2019), it is not surprising to find that ordinary citizens have difficulties telling the difference between the two (PewResearch, 2018). This may have severe consequences: Research shows that citizens adapt issue stances presented in opinionated news programs, which potentially increases the influence of mis- or disinformation (Coppock et al., 2018; Feldman, 2011). We therefore argue that it is not only important to examine the magnitude of the problem, but also to understand which factors make citizens more susceptible to potentially persuasive attempts veiled as ‘factual news’. We use survey data (N = 6643) from ten European countries (CZ, DE, DK, ES, FR, GR, HU, NL, PL, SE) collected in July 2019. Respondents were asked, for six different statements relating to the European Union, whether they considered each to be a factual or opinion statement (e.g., ‘Turnout at the 2019 EP elections was the highest in 20 years’, ‘Some member states contribute too little to the EU budget’). Following their categorization of the statements, we asked respondents whether they agreed with the statement (opinion) or believed it to be true (factual). Measures that we examine in their role as potential determinants for correct identification include, among others, perceived prevalence of mis-/disinformation in the media, the reliance on alternative media, media trust, political knowledge, education, and internal efficacy. We discuss our findings in relation to the ongoing discussions of a ‘post-truth society’ and address questions of citizens’ perceptions on journalistic credibility and their information literacy.