Political news on Facebook during the 2019 Dutch elections

Abstract

This chapter discusses Facebook-based engagement with news sources during the campaigns for two Dutch election campaigns in 2019. Building on earlier journalistic and academic work, a broad typology of ‘junk’ versus mainstream news is developed, as well as a number of more specific alternative categories. Engagement with news articles within these categories on Facebook is then analysed with BuzzSumo (a media monitoring service built atop CrowdTangle). While mainstream news receives significantly more engagement than other types of news during both campaigns, junk news also receives consistent and significant engagement, though no substantial engagement with outright disinformation is found. We conclude with a cursory comparison of the findings with those for other social media platforms, positioning Facebook as the platform where engagement with junk news is most significant.