Date of Award

2023

Document Type

Honors Thesis (Open Access)

Department

Colby College. Government Dept.

Advisor(s)

Nicholas Jacobs

Second Advisor

Amanda Stent

Abstract

This thesis investigates the influence of misinformation on the policy-making pro- cess by examining its temporal relationship with congressional speech on the floor of Congress. Through the application of Granger causality tests, I aim to determine the extent to which misinformation permeates political discourse and affects representatives from both political parties. My findings reveal that misinformation drives congressional speech on certain issues, and it appears to have an asymmetrical impact on Republicans and Democrats. While not set up to answer the question about a false dichotomy, my thesis hints that Republicans spread significantly more systems-based misinformation than their Democratic counterparts.

Keywords

Misinformation, Issue-priorities, Agenda-setting, Twitter, Congress

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