Below are some questions that people have asked regarding fake news. Answers to those questions are also provided.
1. What is fake news?
Some definitions from a few online dictionaries include the following:
"False information or propaganda published under the guise of being authentic news" (Webopedia)
"False, often sensational, information disseminated under the guise of news reporting" (CollinsDictionary.com)
Some synonyms for fake news include:
Fake stories; Hoaxes; Lies; Phony news; Made-up stories (Powerthesaurus.org) To view more synonyms, go to the Powerthesaurus website.
2. What do online fake news stories talk about and what are some examples of online fake news?
Many fake news stories that have been found online focused on people in politics. (Stone-Erdman). For example, a fake news story about Pope Francis endorsing Donald Trump was viewed by many people on social media sites. The false story began with the sensational headline "Pope Francis Shocks the World, Endorses Donald Trump for President, Releases Statement." (Riggins). Another example of fake news was found on social media sites in 2016. It was a false story that claimed that a major case of voter fraud was occurring. This fake news story began with the headline "Breaking: Tens of Thousands of Fraudulent Clinton Votes Found in Ohio Warehouse." (Vojak).
3. Who are the authors of fake news stories found online?
Some authors of online fake news stories are anonymous. (Stone-Erdman). However, there have been some cases in which the authors were known. Some examples of online fake news authors include a recent college graduate from North Carolina, a middle-aged man from Texas, a college student from the country of Georgia (in Asia), a teenager from Macedonia (in Europe), and a corporation in Russia. (Vojak). These examples of fake news authors indicate that fake news authors include people within and outside the United States. The examples also indicate that a fake news author can be an individual person or a group.
4. Where have online fake news stories been found?
Fake news stories have been found on fake news websites. An example of a fake news website is the fake ABC News website. This fake news website has a deceptive URL because it is similar to the URL of the real ABC News website. The URL of the fake ABC News website is "abcnews.com.co." The real ABC News website URL is "abcnews.go.com." In addition to the fake ABC News website, there are other fake news websites that have URLs so similar to other websites that they can make people believe they are on legitimate news websites when they are not (Stone-Erdman).
Fake news stories have also been found on social media websites. Facebook and Twitter are two of those social media sites where fake news stories have been available (Calvert and Vining). A few other social media websites where fake news has been found include 4chan and Reddit. (Smith-Roberts).
5. When did fake news begin?
Fake news became a hot topic in 2016 during the U.S. presidential elections. Therefore, some people might think that fake news began in 2016. However, fake news is not something new. It's hard to know exactly when fake news began, but It is a known fact that fake news has been around for a very long time. In the sixth century A.D. for example, there was a man from Caesarea named Procopius. He created a sixth century version of fake news when he created a document titled "Secret History." In that document, he wrote some false things about the Emperor Justinian and Justinian's wife. The information was somehow disseminated to others. Over the centuries, new ways to disseminate information (printed media, radio, television, Internet) became available to people. The mediums increased the ability to spread information and fake news. (Burkhardt).
6. Why are fake news stories created?
When discussing why fake news stories are created, a question to begin the discussion is "Is fake news created accidentally or is it created intentionally?" One journal article on the topic suggests that fake news is always created intentionally and defines fake news as "false information - purposefully deployed." (Smith-Roberts). However, another journal article on the topic indicated that fake news could be created accidentally or intentionally. The article states "An examination of the current landscape reveals two types of fake news: accidental and intentional." (Vojak). The two authors Smith-Roberts and Vojak agree that false news stories produced intentionally are in the category of fake news. However, they disagree with the idea that fake news stories could be produced accidentally. The author of this LibGuide believes that false news stories produced accidentally should not be called fake news, since they are accidentally wrong. The LibGuide author also believes that the term "fake news" should be used only for false news stories that were produced intentionally, and that false news produced accidentally could be called false news or erroneous news.
According to Vojak, there are two reasons why accidental false news is created. The first reason is that some people's fake news posts on social media went viral, despite the fact that the posters intended those posts to be seen by only certain people. The second reason why accidental fake news has occurred is because some news authors sent their news stories to be published or posted on news websites without having done all of the necessary fact-checking work. That of course, can lead to false news stories being published or posted online. (Vojak)
Vojak also indentifies two reasons why intentional false news (fake news) is created. The first reason is to cause problems for someone else or others. (Vojak). For example, a fake news story made the false claim that a pizza restaurant in Washington, D.C. was harboring a group of pedophiles who had sexually abused some children. The false story was shared on social media sites. At some point after the fake news was posted online, a man named Edgar Welch, who was angered by what he read, drove to the restaurant and fired shots with a rifle at the restaurant. (Stone-Erdman).
The second reason intentional false news (fake news) is created is to make money. Some people have made money from writing fake news stories, posting them on fake news websites, and promoting them through social media. Some fake news authors made money through advertising revenue. Advertisers placed their ads on fake news websites and fake news stories lured people to those websites because they were interesting. The large numbers of fake news website visitors meant that many people saw the ads. As a result, the fake news authors were paid. An example of a fake news story that led to someone making money from it was a fake news story previously mentioned on this guide page that begins "Breaking: Tens of Thousands of Fraudulent Clinton Votes Found in Ohio Warehouse." The author of that fake news story made about $5,000 in ad revenue. (Vojak).
References
Burkhardt, J. (2017). History of fake news. In J. Burkhardt (Ed.), Combating fake news in the digital age (pp.5-9). Chicago: ALA TechSource.
Calvert, C. & Vining, A. (2018). Filtering fake news through a lens of Supreme Court observations and adages. First Amendment Law Review, 16(Symposium Issue), 153-177. Retrieved from https://falrunc.files.wordpress.com/2018/03/falr-volume-16-symposium- issue3.pdf
Fake news. (2018). In Collins Dictionary online. Retrieved from https://www.collinsdictionary.com/us/dictionary/english/fake-news
Fake news. (2018). In Powerthesaurus online. Retrieved from https://www.powerthesaurus.org/fake_news/synonyms
Fake news. (2018). In Webopedia online. Retrieved from https://www.webopedia.com/TERM/F/fake-news.html
Riggins, J.A. (2017). Law student unleashes bombshell allegation you won't believe!:"Fake news" as commercial speech. Wake Forest Law Review, 52(5), 1311-1334.
Smith-Roberts, A. (2018). Facebook, fake news, and the First Amendment. Denver Law Review, 95, 118-126. Retrieved from http://www.denverlawreview.org/dlr-onlinearticle/2018/4/12
Stone-Erdman, J. (2018). Just the (alternative) facts ma'am: The status of fake news under the First Amendment. First Amendment Law Review, 16(Symposium Issue), 410-441. Retrieved from https://falrunc.files.wordpress.com/2018/03/falr-volume-16-symposium-issue3.pdf
Vojak, B. (2017). Fake news: The commoditization of Internet speech. California Western International Law Journal, 48(1), 123-158. Retrieved from https://scholarlycommons.law.cwsl.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1531&context=cwilj