Fake It “Till You Make It”: Debunking Fake News in a Post-Truth America

2019 ◽  
Vol 8 (1) ◽  
pp. 114-133
Keyword(s):  
Social Media ◽  
First Amendment ◽  
Presidential Election ◽  
Political Discourse ◽  
Cutting Edge ◽  
American People ◽  
Fake News ◽  
News Sources ◽  
The Media ◽  
The U.S

Since the 2016 U.S. presidential election, attacks on the media have been relentless. “Fake news” has become a household term, and repeated attempts to break the trust between reporters and the American people have threatened the validity of the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. In this article, the authors trace the development of fake news and its impact on contemporary political discourse. They also outline cutting-edge pedagogies designed to assist students in critically evaluating the veracity of various news sources and social media sites.

scholarly journals Russia’s hybrid invasion in Belarus during the presidential election campaign 2020

2020 ◽  
Vol 9 ◽  
pp. 121-129
Author(s):  
Anastasiya Ilyina
Keyword(s):  
Social Media ◽  
Presidential Election ◽  
Opinion Leaders ◽  
Election Campaign ◽  
Fake News ◽  
Informational Influence ◽  
The Media ◽  
Types Of Information ◽  
Sociology Of Communication ◽  
Presidential Election Campaign

There are various instruments for Russia to have influence on its neighbours, such as using opinion leaders (authorities), intellectuals, and journalists to create a favourable informational context or to place the ordered materials in the media so as to have an impact on public opinion. These are the types of information attacks that can lead to the loss of statehood or the substantial limitation of sovereignty. This hybrid aggression strives to precisely this result. The main questions are: how the Russian information space, mud-slinging and troll farms functioned in Belarus during the presidential election? How the fake news which is produced in Russia impacts societies? Which political scenarios appeared in Belarus following Russia’s informational influence? It is a fact that today the Russian authorities use tools of fake news and propaganda; combined with the extra possibilities of social media. The appearance of fake news is connected with national safety because they jeopardize democratic institutions, lead to the radicalization of society, and change the balance of authority. In the research, the methodologies were used from the sociology of communication, political science and content analysis.

Media Literacy and Fake News

2019 ◽  
pp. 163-176
Author(s):  
Tracy Simmons
Keyword(s):  
Social Media ◽  
Media Literacy ◽  
Presidential Election ◽  
Literacy Skills ◽  
Fake News ◽  
Knowing How ◽  
The Media ◽  
Fact Checking

“Fake news” isn't a new phenomenon, but it began trending in 2016 during a contentious presidential election. Particularly with the rise of social media, people saw the dangerous impact this movement had, and continues to have on society. People easily bought into false stories, shared them online and even acted on them. Because of this, the importance of fact checking and analysis has surged, and the responsibility falls on both news consumers and practitioners. Additionally, the term fake news has been used repeatedly to inaccurately label news that people do not agree with or do not like. By learning to identify the differences between truth, satire, falsity, dislike, error, and learning why fake news has gone viral, individuals can enhance their media literacy skills. This will in turn improve the media landscape because news consumers will be required to become proficient in knowing how to produce, interpret, and share news in an ethical and honest way.

Media Literacy and Fake News

2018 ◽  
pp. 255-268
Author(s):  
Tracy Simmons
Keyword(s):  
Social Media ◽  
Media Literacy ◽  
Presidential Election ◽  
Literacy Skills ◽  
Fake News ◽  
Knowing How ◽  
The Media ◽  
Fact Checking

“Fake news” isn't a new phenomenon, but it began trending in 2016 during a contentious presidential election. Particularly with the rise of social media, people saw the dangerous impact this movement had, and continues to have on society. People easily bought into false stories, shared them online and even acted on them. Because of this, the importance of fact checking and analysis has surged, and the responsibility falls on both news consumers and practitioners. Additionally, the term fake news has been used repeatedly to inaccurately label news that people do not agree with or do not like. By learning to identify the differences between truth, satire, falsity, dislike, error, and learning why fake news has gone viral, individuals can enhance their media literacy skills. This will in turn improve the media landscape because news consumers will be required to become proficient in knowing how to produce, interpret, and share news in an ethical and honest way.

scholarly journals Fejk – „fabuła z zamiarem oszukania”

2019 ◽  
Vol 44 (2) ◽  
pp. 305-312
Author(s):  
Łukasz Małecki
Keyword(s):  
Social Media ◽  
Presidential Election ◽  
Social Phenomenon ◽  
Fake News ◽  
Donald Trump ◽  
News Reports ◽  
The United Kingdom ◽  
Political Events ◽  
Ancient Times ◽  
The U.S

While misinformation and propaganda have existed since ancient times, their importance and influence nowadays – in the age of social media – is still not clear. Recent social and political events, such as the controversial Brexit referendum in the United Kingdom and the narrow win of Donald Trump in the U.S. presidential election of 2016, have led to a wave of interest in the phenomenon of “fake news” – described usually as a piece of fabricated information that disseminates deceptive content or distorts actual news reports, shared on social media. Despite being a new term, “fake news” has also evolved very quickly and rapidly. The present article attempts to analyze how the term “fake news” is being developed in recent years. The article characterizes this relevant social phenomenon linked to cheating, misinformation and manipulation and also proposes its classification and definition.

scholarly journals A Data-Driven Framework for Coding the Intent and Extent of Political Tweeting, Disinformation, and Extremism

Information ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 12 (4) ◽  
pp. 148
Author(s):  
Mahdi Hashemi
Keyword(s):  
Social Networks ◽  
Presidential Election ◽  
Online Social Networks ◽  
Data Driven ◽  
The Political ◽  
Political Affiliation ◽  
News Sources ◽  
The U.S

Disinformation campaigns on online social networks (OSNs) in recent years have underscored democracy’s vulnerability to such operations and the importance of identifying such operations and dissecting their methods, intents, and source. This paper is another milestone in a line of research on political disinformation, propaganda, and extremism on OSNs. A total of 40,000 original Tweets (not re-Tweets or Replies) related to the U.S. 2020 presidential election are collected. The intent, focus, and political affiliation of these political Tweets are determined through multiple discussions and revisions. There are three political affiliations: rightist, leftist, and neutral. A total of 171 different classes of intent or focus are defined for Tweets. A total of 25% of Tweets were left out while defining these classes of intent. The purpose is to assure that the defined classes would be able to cover the intent and focus of unseen Tweets (Tweets that were not used to determine and define these classes) and no new classes would be required. This paper provides these classes, their definition and size, and example Tweets from them. If any information is included in a Tweet, its factuality is verified through valid news sources and articles. If any opinion is included in a Tweet, it is determined that whether or not it is extreme, through multiple discussions and revisions. This paper provides analytics with regard to the political affiliation and intent of Tweets. The results show that disinformation and extreme opinions are more common among rightists Tweets than leftist Tweets. Additionally, Coronavirus pandemic is the topic of almost half of the Tweets, where 25.43% of Tweets express their unhappiness with how Republicans have handled this pandemic.

scholarly journals Perang Tagar Di Ruang Virtual Diskursus Politik Capres Pasca Debat Putaran Kedua

2020 ◽  
Vol 12 (1) ◽  
pp. 30
Author(s):  
Ana Fitriana P ◽  
Ema Ema ◽  
Fardiah Oktariani Lubis
Keyword(s):  
Social Media ◽  
Critical Discourse Analysis ◽  
Presidential Election ◽  
Political Discourse ◽  
Virtual Space ◽  
The Political ◽  
Virtual Communication ◽  
Presidential Candidates ◽  
Subject Pronouns ◽  
Source Of Information

This study aims to uncover the political discourse of the Presidential Candidates after the second round of debates, Jokowi VS Prabowo in virtual space. The background of the political discourse of the 2019 Presidential Election debate in the virtual space gave rise to various responses and sentiments among the supporters. After the Presidential Election debate, the hashtag war between #BohongLagiJokowi and # 02GagapUnicorn on social media Twitter became the main discussion. The aim is to disperse the power, ideology, and interests behind the presidential political discourse through the Fairclough Critical Discourse Analysis. The research method uses qualitative methods to parse the problem in research, using critical thinking as a basis for research. The results showed the tweet of Prabowo supporters trying to show stunts through language. The use of subject pronouns such as the word Mukidi to dwarf the subject, also uses the hashtags #DeletJokowi, #UnistallJokowi, and #BohongLagiJokowi as symbols of virtual communication. In contrast, the tweet of Jokowi's supporters sent a stuttering sentiment because they didn't understand the e-comer business. Hashtag # 02GagapUnicorn as a virtual symbol for organizing texts. In the order of messo or the production of text, the two supporters make a virtual symbol through the hashtag to become a topic of discussion on Twitter. In the situational or macro aspects are influenced by the post-truth phenomenon that is vague information whose source is unclear, have an impact on the inclusion of opinions on the assassination of certain characters. The advice, wise social media, understand and thoroughly source of information, is not affected by the use of certain metaphors, and at the stage of text, production needs to pay attention to the effects that will impact on the influence of social psychology of each supporter.Penelitian ini bertujuan untuk mengungkap diskursus politik Capres pasca debat putaran kedua, Jokowi VS Prabowo di ruang virtual. Dilatarbelakangi oleh lanskap diskursus politik debat Pilpres 2019 di ruang virtual yang menimbulkan berbagai tanggapan dan sentimen di antara kedua kubu pendukung. Pasca debat Pilpres perang tagar antara #BohongLagiJokowi dan #02GagapUnicorn di Twitter menjadi pembahasan utama. Tujuannya untuk membongkar kuasa, ideologi dan kepentingan di balik wacana politik Pilpres melalui analisis wacana kritis Fairclough. Metode penelitian menggunakan metode kualitatif untuk mengurai masalah dalam penelitian, dengan menggunakan pemikiran kritis sebagai dasar pijakan penelitian. Hasil penelitian menunjukan tweet warganet pendukung Prabowo berusaha menunjukkan pengkerdilan melalui Bahasa. Penggunaan kata ganti subjek seperti kata Mukidi untuk mengkerdilkan subjek, juga menggunakan tagar #DeletJokowi, #UninstallJokowi dan #BohongLagiJokowi sebagai simbol komunikasi virtual. Namun sebaliknya, tweet warganet pendukung Jokowi membuat sentimen dengan kata-kata gagap karena tidak memahami bisnis milenial (e-commerce). Tagar #02GagapUnicorn sebagai simbol virtual untuk pengorganisasin teks, sedangkan di tahapan produksi teks (messo) kedua pendukung membuat simbol virtual melalui tagar (#) untuk menjadi tren topik pembahasan di Twitter. Pada aspek situasional (makro) dipengaruhi oleh fenomena post-truth yaitu informasi-informasi samar yang tidak jelas sumbernya, berdampak terhadap penggiringan opini terhadap pembunuhan karakter tertentu. Sarannya, bijak bermedia sosial, pahami dan teliti sumber informasinya, tidak terpengaruh terhadap penggunaaan metafora tertentu, serta pada tahap produksi teks perlu memperhatikan efeknya yang akan berdampak pada pengaruh psikologi sosial masing-masing pendukung. 

scholarly journals Stings and Scams: ‘Fake News,’ the First Amendment, and the New Activist Journalism

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Michael C. Dorf ◽  
Sidney Tarrow
Keyword(s):  
First Amendment ◽  
Political Activism ◽  
Technological Innovations ◽  
Fake News ◽  
Planned Parenthood ◽  
Investigative Reporting ◽  
The Public ◽  
The Supreme Court ◽  
The Media ◽  
Sting Operation

Constitutional law, technological innovations, and the rise of a cultural “right to know” have recently combined to yield “fake news,” as illustrated by an anti-abortion citizen-journalist sting operation that scammed Planned Parenthood. We find that the First Amendment, as construed by the Supreme Court, offers scant protection for activist journalists to go undercover to uncover wrongdoing, while providing substantial protection for the spread of falsehoods. By providing activists the means to reach sympathetic slices of the public, the emergence of social media has returned journalism to its roots in political activism, at the expense of purportedly objective and truthful investigative reporting. But the rise of “truthiness” — that is, falsehoods with the ring of truth, diffused through new forms of communication — threatens the integrity of the media. How to respond to these contradictions is a growing problem for advocates of free speech and liberal values more generally.

scholarly journals An Analysis of Fake Narratives on Social Media during 2019 Indonesian Presidential Election

2020 ◽  
Vol 36 (4) ◽  
pp. 351-368
Author(s):  
Vience Mutiara Rumata ◽  
◽  
Fajar Kuala Nugraha ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Social Media ◽  
Presidential Election ◽  
Political Polarization ◽  
Political Discussion ◽  
Fake News ◽  
Data Set ◽  
Political Situation ◽  
Radical Group ◽  
Time Frames ◽  
Election Studies

Social media become a public sphere for political discussion in the world, with no exception in Indonesia. Social media have broadened public engagement but at the same time, it creates an inevitable effect of polarization particularly during the heightened political situation such as a presidential election. Studies found that there is a correlation between fake news and political polarization. In this paper, we identify and the pattern of fake narratives in Indonesia in three different time frames: (1) the Presidential campaign (23 September 2018 -13 April 2019); (2) the vote (14-17 April 2019); (3) the announcement (21-22 May 2019). We extracted and analyzed a data-set consisting of 806,742 Twitter messages, 143 Facebook posts, and 16,082 Instagram posts. We classified 43 fake narratives where Twitter was the most used platform to distribute fake narratives massively. The accusation of Muslim radical group behind Prabowo and Communist accusation towards the incumbent President Joko Widodo were the two top fake narratives during the campaign on Twitter and Facebook. The distribution of fake narratives to Prabowo was larger than that to Joko Widodo on those three platforms in this period. On the contrary, the distribution of fake narratives to Joko Widodo was significantly larger than that to Prabowo during the election and the announcement periods. The death threat of Joko Widodo was top fake narratives on these three platforms. Keywords: Fake narratives, Indonesian presidential election, social media, political polarization, post.

scholarly journals Electoral Disinformation: Looking Through the Lens of Tsek.ph Fact Checks

Plaridel ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 17 (1) ◽  
pp. 285-295
Author(s):  
Yvonne Chua ◽  
Jake Soriano
Keyword(s):  
Social Media ◽  
Presidential Election ◽  
Wide Range ◽  
Midterm Elections ◽  
Fertile Ground ◽  
Social Media Platforms ◽  
The Media ◽  
Fact Checking

Elections are fertile ground for disinformation. The 2019 midterm elections, like the 2016 presidential election, buttress this observation. This ugly side of electoral contests is documented by Tsek.ph, a pioneering collaborative fact-checking initiative launched by three universities and eleven newsrooms specifically for the midterms. Its repository of fact checks provides valuable insights into the nature of electoral disinformation before, during and after the elections. Clearly, electoral disinformation emanates from candidates and supporters alike, on conventional (e.g., speeches and sorties) and digital (e.g., social media) platforms. Its wide range of victims includes the media no less.

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