When is Fake News Not Fake News?
Note: this is an extension of a piece that I originally published with The Conversation (theconversation.com/being-more-media-savvy-wont-stop-the-spread-of-fake-news-heres-why-77888)
“Fake news” was the buzzword of 2017. Barely a day goes by without a headline about President Donald Trump criticizing media “bias”, or the spread of “alternative facts”.
Many articles on the subject suggest that social media sites should do more to educate the public about misinformation, or that readers should think more critically about the sources of news stories before sharing them. But there are fundamental problems with this. First, there isn’t a clear definition of what “fake news” really is. And second, it overlooks important aspects of people’s psychological makeup.
What is “fake news”?
“Fake news” can be classified in a number of ways and represented as a series of concentric circles. First, in the centre of the concentric model, we have actual fake news. These are the stories that we commonly see shared on sites such as News Thump and The Onion…
