Fake News

New perspectives on the misinformation ecosystem that is the production and circulation of fake news. What is fake news? Is it an item on Breitbart, an article in The Onion, an outright falsehood disseminated via Russian bot, or a catchphrase used by a politician to discredit a story he doesn't like? This book examines the real fake news: the constant flow of purposefully crafted, sensational, emotionally charged, misleading or totally fabricated information that mimics the form of mainstream news. Rather than viewing fake news through a single lens, the book maps the various kinds of misinformation through several different disciplinary perspectives, taking into account the overlapping contexts of politics, technology, and journalism. The contributors consider topics including fake news as "disorganized" propaganda; folkloric falsehood in the "Pizzagate" conspiracy; native advertising as counterfeit news; the limitations of regulatory reform and technological solutionism; Reddit's enabling of fake news; the psychological mechanisms by which people make sense of information; and the evolution of fake news in America. A section on media hoaxes and satire features an oral history of and an interview with prankster-activists the Yes Men, famous for parodies that reveal hidden truths. Finally, contributors consider possible solutions to the complex problem of fake news--ways to mitigate its spread, to teach students to find factually accurate information, and to go beyond fact-checking.

Western societies are under siege, as fake news, post-truth and alternative facts are undermining the very core of democracy. This dystopian narrative is currently circulated by intellectuals, journalists and policy makers worldwide. In this book, Johan Farkas and Jannick Schou deliver a comprehensive study of post-truth discourses. They critically map the normative ideas contained in these and present a forceful call for deepening democracy. The dominant narrative of our time is that democracy is in a state of emergency caused by social media, changes to journalism and misinformed masses. This crisis needs to be resolved by reinstating truth at the heart of democracy, even if this means curtailing civic participation and popular sovereignty. Engaging with critical political philosophy, Farkas and Schou argue that these solutions neglect the fact that democracy has never been about truth alone: it is equally about the voice of the democratic people. Post-Truth, Fake News and Democracy delivers a sobering diagnosis of our times. It maps contemporary discourses on truth and democracy, foregrounds their normative foundations and connects these to historical changes within liberal democracies. The book will be of interest to students and scholars studying the current state and future of democracy, as well as to a politically informed readership.

Today, like no other time in our history, the threat of misinformation and disinformation is at an all-time high. This is also true in the field of Education. Misinformation refers to false information shared by a source who intends to inform, but is unaware that the information is false, such as when an educator who recommends the use of a learning strategy that is not actually beneficial. Disinformation is false information shared by a source who has the intent to deceive and is aware that the information is false, such as when a politician claim that high-stakes testing will fix K-12 education when in fact there is no evidence to support this practice. This book provides recent examples of how misinformation and disinformation manifest in the field of education and remedies. Section One, Susceptibility to Misinformation, focuses on factors that influence the endorsement and persistence of misinformation. This section will include chapters on: the appeal and persistence of "zombie concepts" in education; learner and message factors that underlie the adoption of misinformation in the context of the newly proposed Likelihood of Adoption Model; cognitive and motivational factors that contribute to misinformation revision failure; cognitive biases and bias transfer in criminal justice training; the influence of conspiratorial and political ideation on the use of misinformation; and, how educational culture and policy has historically given rise to quackery in education. Section Two, Practices in the Service of Reducing Misinformation in Education, focuses on practices aimed at reducing the impact of misinformation, and includes chapters on: misinformation in the education of children with ASD and its influence on educational and intervention practices; the promise of using dynamical systems and computational linguistics to model the spread of misinformation; systematic attempts to reduce misinformation in psychology and education both in and out of the classroom; and the potential perils of constructivism in the classroom, as well as the teaching of critical thinking. Each section has a discussion chapter that explicates emerging themes and lessons learned and fruitful avenues for future research.