2026 midterms: Expert says news media, voters will struggle to keep up with mis/disinformation

BUFFALO, N.Y. - On the political calendar, 2026 signals the arrival of the midterm election year, where voter turnout often provides clues into the public’s opinion of the current presidential administration.

Social media will once again play a major role in the messaging behind the midterm political campaigns, says Yini Zhang, PhD, assistant professor of communication in the University at Buffalo College of Arts and Sciences.

“As social media remains a critical source of political information, new challenges are intensifying for news organizations and journalists when covering the 2026 midterm elections,” says Zhang, who studies how information flows across traditional and social media, and their implications for journalism and democracy.

Below, Zhang highlights some of these challenges.

• Online influencers and self-styled journalists, political or not, will continue producing politically relevant content that reinforces preferred narratives, often without prioritizing accuracy.
• Malicious actors can increasingly leverage artificial intelligence-generated content to manufacture false evidence and simulate untrue public opinion.
• As mis/dis-information and artificial intelligence further muddy the information environment, news consumers may become more skeptical, even toward credible information.
• Loud voices will continue to dominate social media, often claiming to speak for larger groups of people. Those with strong or extreme views are also more likely to post and engage, which means social media discourse may not reflect broader public opinion.
• The social media ecosystem remains fragmented and politically sorted across platforms. A trend that dominates one platform may not reflect broader public opinion.

Zhang also said that journalists can rely on four key guardrails.

• Put accuracy and transparency first. Clearly distinguish what is known from what remains uncertain/false and explain how information was verified to rebuild trust and reinforce journalistic authority.
• Separate online narratives with offline reality. Don’t stop at reporting what is spreading online. Verify what is happening on the ground by interviewing the people and organizations involved, identifying administrative facts, and examining the political money chains that may be shaping online content.
• Avoid equating social media discourse with public opinion, as doing so can amplify extreme voices and discourage dissent by distorting perceptions of where the majority stands.
• Contextualize viral claims with an ecosystem lens. Using online discourse tracking systems, assess where a claim is spreading. Is it circulating within a niche community on a single platform, or has it broken through and reverberated across platforms?

When projected through social media channels, she says, the truth is often distorted. As a result, news organizations and voters will have to conduct research and verification when digesting political news during the upcoming midterm elections, Zhang adds.