Unravelling misinformation in politics: introduction to the special issue

Misinformation is discussed as one of the most pressing challenges of the digital age, potentially shaping public opinion and influencing political behaviour across the globe. In this introduction to a special issue, we report on the analysis of Scopus search results documenting increasing attention to misinformation (and related topics) over the past twenty-five years and a focus on the US context. The contributions to this special issue consider the US context (Gomez & Jenkins 2025; Littrell et al. 2025), but also consider Brazil (Bastos et al. 2025), Germany (Unger et al. 2025), and several cross-national studies that include other countries in Europe, the US, and Canada (Holt & Bechmann 2025; Hoffmann & Boulianne 2025; Morosoli & Humprecht 2025). The contributions offer overlapping insights on the themes of misinformation as a socially constructed phenomenon; misinformation exposure and engagement; and the power and limitations of misinformation. We connect these new findings with recently published meta-analyses and systematic literature reviews on misinformation. We conclude with suggestions for future research that addresses contextual and cultural specificity; examines the motivations for engagement; explores new angles for the study of polarisation and partisanship; and new methodologies.