For as long as there has been a press, fake news has played a role in the disruption of how factual information is shared among people. Misinformation goes back even further, spreading through the use of lies and rumors, spoken or written, for various political and social purposes. In this book, we will trace a brief history of fake news, examine its antecedents and precursors, before looking at the way it is currently employed using digital information technologies.
The current consensus on what comprises fake news is somewhat contested; as such, a more detailed look at the phenomenon is in order. Not only does fake news include false news stories spread with the intent to deceive, its purpose can be instructive and parodic, providing the very tools needed to puncture misinformation bubbles. This book will examine in detail a comprehensive model for fake news that might be used to help predict and neutralize its negative effects, as well as examine the traits that contribute to a person’s susceptibility to falling for false stories, conspiracies, and other misinformation.
In this regard, the book is unique in its approach to fake news, seeing it as situated within a matrix of behaviors, conditions, and contexts that must be accounted for before its effects can be completely neutralized. The context also explores the relationship of the creator and the user of fake news, speculating on the intertwined actions and motives of both. It is hypothesized that specific conditions exploited by ‘bad actors’ would contribute to the spread of fake news and that low levels or lack of certain identifiable characteristics in users (i.e. ability to scaffold, conduct parallel thinking, be aware of one’s ignorance, know one’s strengths and weaknesses) would also make it more likely to be consumed and shared.
This book also examines the wider impacts of fake news on societies, especially in the areas of education, politics, and public policy. This book makes the case for developing strategies that rely not merely upon information literacy to help individuals deal with fake news, but also on wider national and international policies that specifically aid users of information and address human behavioral characteristics. As in information behavior research, the scale and scope of examining fake news requires both a local focus and a large-scale inquiry into societal and cultural norms
Andrew Weiss is a digital services librarian at California State University, Northridge, with over fifteen years of experience working in academic libraries. He focuses primarily on scholarly communication issues, especially open access, copyright policy in academia, institutional repositories, and developing better strategies for data curation. He is currently a PhD student with Manchester Metropolitan University in the San Jose State University Gateway program. His current and prior research examines fake news and disinformation; the impact of massive digital libraries such as Google Books, the HathiTrust, and the Internet Archive; the future developments of open access publishing; the impact of Big Data; and, last but not least, information ethics. He lives in Los Angeles with his family.
Counterfact is a well-informed description of fake news and false information that offers recommendations about how to mitigate these in a clearly written practical manner. This will be of great use to librarians and scholars who study the nature and use of information. — James W. Cortada, co-author of Fake News Nation: The Long History of Lies and Misinterpretations in America
