[{"data":1,"prerenderedAt":-1},["ShallowReactive",2],{"detail-sidebar-cat-1-en-105":3,"doc-seo-200495-105":53,"doc-detail-200495-en":126},{"code":4,"msg":5,"data":6},0,"success",[7,14,19,24,29,34,39,44,49],{"id":8,"doc_module":9,"doc_module_name":10,"category_name":11,"show_sort_weight":12,"slug":13},11,1,"Template","Presentations",90,"presentations",{"id":15,"doc_module":9,"doc_module_name":10,"category_name":16,"show_sort_weight":17,"slug":18},12,"Resumes",80,"resumes",{"id":20,"doc_module":9,"doc_module_name":10,"category_name":21,"show_sort_weight":22,"slug":23},14,"Invoices",70,"invoices",{"id":25,"doc_module":9,"doc_module_name":10,"category_name":26,"show_sort_weight":27,"slug":28},15,"Posters",60,"posters",{"id":30,"doc_module":9,"doc_module_name":10,"category_name":31,"show_sort_weight":32,"slug":33},16,"Social Media",50,"social-media",{"id":35,"doc_module":9,"doc_module_name":10,"category_name":36,"show_sort_weight":37,"slug":38},17,"Forms",40,"forms",{"id":40,"doc_module":9,"doc_module_name":10,"category_name":41,"show_sort_weight":42,"slug":43},18,"Letters",30,"letters",{"id":45,"doc_module":9,"doc_module_name":10,"category_name":46,"show_sort_weight":47,"slug":48},21,"Paper Templates",5,"papers-templates",{"id":50,"doc_module":9,"doc_module_name":10,"category_name":51,"show_sort_weight":4,"slug":52},158,"General","general-158",{"code":4,"msg":54,"data":55},"ok",{"site_id":56,"language":57,"slug":58,"title":59,"keywords":60,"description":61,"schema_data":62,"social_meta":119,"head_meta":121,"extra_data":123,"updated_unix":125},105,"en","the-social-construction-of-right-wing-reality-essay","The Social Construction of Right-Wing Reality - Essay","","Explores how right-wing news media shape contemporary politics and political cultures through social meaning-making rather than only disinformation or cultural-mirror explanations. Argues that media influence operates through ritual functions and the relationships between media voices and individual consumers, communities, social networks, and group meaning-making practices. Identifies three dimensions of influence: mobilizing identities, cultivating deep stories, and supporting epistemic interdependence.",{"@graph":63,"@context":118},[64,80,101],{"@type":65,"itemListElement":66},"BreadcrumbList",[67,71,74,77],{"item":68,"name":69,"@type":70,"position":9},"https://docshare.wps.com","Home","ListItem",{"item":72,"name":10,"@type":70,"position":73},"https://docshare.wps.com/template/",2,{"item":75,"name":51,"@type":70,"position":76},"https://docshare.wps.com/template/general/",3,{"item":78,"name":59,"@type":70,"position":79},"https://docshare.wps.com/template/the-social-construction-of-right-wing-reality-essay/200495/",4,{"url":78,"name":59,"@type":81,"image":82,"author":87,"headline":59,"publisher":90,"fileFormat":93,"inLanguage":57,"description":61,"dateModified":94,"datePublished":95,"encodingFormat":93,"isAccessibleForFree":96,"interactionStatistic":97},"DigitalDocument",{"url":83,"@type":84,"width":85,"height":86},"https://docshare.wps.com/thumbnails/the-social-construction-of-right-wing-reality-essay/200495.png","ImageObject",442,249,{"name":88,"@type":89},"Anda","Person",{"url":68,"name":91,"@type":92},"DocShare","Organization","application/pdf","2026-09-27","2026-09-04",true,{"@type":98,"interactionType":99,"userInteractionCount":47},"InteractionCounter",{"@type":100},"ViewAction",{"@type":102,"mainEntity":103},"FAQPage",[104,110,114],{"name":105,"@type":106,"acceptedAnswer":107},"What are the two main existing approaches to explaining right-wing media influence?","Question",{"text":108,"@type":109},"A disinformation approach treats right-wing media as vectors for falsehoods or propaganda, while a selective-exposure or cultural-mirror approach treats the media as reflections of audiences’ preexisting resentments and beliefs.","Answer",{"name":111,"@type":106,"acceptedAnswer":112},"What does the social meaning-making perspective emphasize instead?",{"text":113,"@type":109},"It centers right-wing media’s role in social meaning making, focusing on ritual functions and how media voices relate to consumers, communities, social networks, and group practices.",{"name":115,"@type":106,"acceptedAnswer":116},"What are the three dimensions of influence proposed in the essay?",{"text":117,"@type":109},"Mobilizing identities, cultivating deep stories, and supporting epistemic interdependence.","https://schema.org",{"og:url":78,"og:type":120,"og:title":59,"og:site_name":91,"og:description":61},"article",{"robots":122,"canonical":78},"index,follow",{"doc_id":124,"site_id":56},200495,1788509139,{"code":4,"msg":5,"data":127},{"doc_id":124,"user_id":128,"nickname":88,"user_avatar":129,"doc_module":9,"category_id":50,"category_name":51,"doc_title":59,"doc_description":61,"doc_content":130,"file_id":131,"file_url":132,"file_type":133,"file_size":134,"view_count":47,"is_deleted":4,"is_public":9,"is_downloadable":9,"audit_status":9,"page_count":135,"language":136,"language_code":57,"site_id":56,"html_lang":57,"table_of_contents":137,"faqs":138,"seo_title":139,"seo_description":61,"update_tm":125,"read_time":47},962075006959,"https://ap-avatar.wpscdn.com/avatar/e0002397efbe92a78e?_k=1776741047341049297","The Social Construction of Right-Wing Reality  \nANTHONY NADLER  \nDORON TAUSSIG  \nUrsinus College, USA  \nHow do right-wing news media influence contemporary politics and political cultures? We suggest that two poles structure much of the popular and scholarly discourse attempting to explain this influence . On one hand, a disinformation approach treats right-wing media as a vector for falsehoods or propaganda imposed on gullible audiences . On the other hand, a selective-exposure or cultural-mirror approach posits right-wing media as a reflection of audiences’preexisting resentments and beliefs . Here we argue for a third approach that centers right-wing media’s role in social meaning making. This approach emphasizes the ritualistic functions of news media and relationships media voices have with individual consumers and communities, social networks, and group meaning-making practices . We explore three key dimensions of influence of right-wing news that come into view through this lens: mobilizing identities, cultivating deep stories, and supporting epistemic interdependence .  \nKeywords: partisan news, right-wing media, conservatism, meaning making, epistemology, deep stories, critical theory  \nWhy do right-wing media matter? In the United States, there clearly is significance to the enormous social phenomenon that comprises 37 years of Rush Limbaugh, the biggest cable news channel in the country, Fox competitor/imitators such as OAN and Newsmax, a battalion of popular podcasters and YouTubers, generations of dominant voices in the talk-radio industry, a sea of “pink slime” partisan local news websites across the country, and so on . However, when we look for explanations of the influence of such media infrastructure, we find the most prominent theories wanting.  \nThe predominant current framework for understanding the role of right-wing news media in the United States is the disinformation approach. This approach asks what factually inaccurate information and/or false narratives these outlets spread to their audiences . Recent popular pushback has come from the cultural-mirror perspective, which points to how the preexisting characteristics of conservative audiences inform the content of the media that serve them . Both of these frameworks can offer valuable insights, but both take a narrow view of media influence, focusing on the direct relationship between media exposure and its impact on individual attitudes or beliefs . In so doing, they fail to capture what we argue are more diffuse and community-level dynamics of media influence . To grasp those, one must look at right-wing media from what we call the social meaning-making perspective .  \nCopyright © 2025 (Anthony Nadler and Doron Taussig, [anadler@ursinus.edu](anadler@ursinus.edu) and [dtaussig@ursinus.edu](dtaussig@ursinus.edu)).  \nLicensed under the Creative Commons Attribution Non-commercial No Derivatives (by-nc-nd) . Available at [https://ijoc.org](https://ijoc.org).  \nInternational Journal of Communication 19(2025) The Social Construction of Right-Wing Reality 2975  \nIn this essay, we offer a sketch for an approach that centers on right-wing news media’s role as a key node in processes of social meaning making. This perspective approaches right-wing media as an integrated component of the broader conservative movement and views the relationship among those media, their audiences, and their audiences’communities as complex, interactive, and important. It reflects many of the tenets that cultural studies scholars have long brought to understanding journalism, though mostly in its highly modern professional form (Zelizer, 2004) . Bringing this perspective to right-wing news helps us more fully see the shape of right-wing media culture .  \nWe broadly conceptualize right-wing news media as entities run by paid staff or entrepreneurs who are self-identified partisans of the right that concentrate resources on newsgathering or commentary. The dynamics we discuss here a","cbCaig8R4tKcBMai","https://ap.wps.com/l/cbCaig8R4tKcBMai","pdf",184873,13,"English","# Introduction\n## Competing approaches to right-wing media influence\n## Social meaning-making perspective\n# Why right-wing media matter\n# Framework and conceptualization\n## Three key dimensions of influence\n# Scope and motivation\n## The popular right","[{\"question\":\"What are the two main existing approaches to explaining right-wing media influence?\",\"answer\":\"A disinformation approach treats right-wing media as vectors for falsehoods or propaganda, while a selective-exposure or cultural-mirror approach treats the media as reflections of audiences’ preexisting resentments and beliefs.\"},{\"question\":\"What does the social meaning-making perspective emphasize instead?\",\"answer\":\"It centers right-wing media’s role in social meaning making, focusing on ritual functions and how media voices relate to consumers, communities, social networks, and group practices.\"},{\"question\":\"What are the three dimensions of influence proposed in the essay?\",\"answer\":\"Mobilizing identities, cultivating deep stories, and supporting epistemic interdependence.\"}]","The Social Construction of Right-Wing Reality - Essay | PDF"]