Archives: Research

This study analyses website traffic to websites known for publishing fake news preceding the 2016 US Presidential elections. It uses 114 days of combined data from two popular desktop web browsers: Internet Explorer 11 and Edge. The analysis began on July 18th, 2016 (the start of the Republican national convention) and ended on November 8th, 2016 (election day). This study contributes the body of academic and journalistic work on this subject through a fine-grained geographic and temporal perspective. 

 The political climate of the 21st century is rife with campaigns of  disinformation, misinformation and propaganda. It has increasingly become harder to judge what is true or false in an echo-chamber like world. This reflection paper prepared for the Canadian Commission for UNESCO looks into the trajectory of the phenomenon of "fake news" and how new technology has compromised the traditional anchors of authenticity.

Fake news poses a major challenge to the cornerstone of democratic values. The emergence of social media as a key source of news has created a new ecosystem for the spread of misinformation. As many people consume social media is it therefore important to intervene to show relatively less untrustworthy content on these platforms. This research investigate one potential approach to curb the spread of misinformation by having social media platform algorithms preferentially display user rated trustworthy content. The study ran two preregistered experiments where individuals rated familiarity with and trust in 60 news sources from three different categories: mainstream media outlets, hyper-partisan websites and false news websites. 

This study aims to assess students' capabilities in assessing the veracity of information found on social media. In a previous study of student attitudes after the presidential elections, the authors found 72% students having used social media (such as Facebook and Twitter) as a source of election news. A previous study by Stanford University found middle school, high school and college students students facing difficulty in discerning fake and real news articles. The purpose this study's survey is to gather more information about the sources used by high school students to obtain news and what steps they take to judge the credibility of those sources. 

After the 2016 US Presidential elections fake news has become one of the most discussed issues. This study analyses how often college students are able to discern real from fake news, by applying concepts of news credibility, research, and using real and fake news stories published online. The study surveyed 394 college students on their ability to tell real from fake news, news consumption and their news research behaviour. Additionally, the results were compared to the respondents' personal characteristics. 

After the 2016 US Presidential elections, the phrase 'fake news' has become a daily fixture in US political discourse. It has been appropriated by political actors to critique "mainstream media" or been taken up by a wide range of policymakers, journalists, and scholars to refer to problematic content such as information campaigns shared on social media. This paper clarifies the use of 'fake news' and looks at solutions proposed by social media platforms, news media, civil society organisations and the government. 

This is the seventh annual report by the Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism (RISJ) on the changes in the news environment across countries. The report is based on a YouGov survey of more than 74,000 people in 37 markets, with additional qualitative research making it the most comprehensive comparative study of news consumption in the world. This year's report finds hope in the change made by many media companies shifting models towards higher quality content and more emphasis on subscriptions. 

Disinformation, misinformation, and fake news have become an increasing problem online. To over come the obstacle of an ever growing need for verification data the research employed a Systemic Literature Review to find emergent themes in the field of disinformation. Furthermore, the paper discusses detection and mitigation methods which currently exist. 

The aftermath of the 2016 US Presidential election saw an increasing concern in the rise of fake news and its effect on political landscapes. This policy brief provides and overview on the changing nature of the gathering and dissemination of news in a globalised digital world. It also attempts to define 'fake news' and the extent to which it might have influenced the US election results. 

The recent shifts in the media ecosystem have raised new concerns about the vulnerability of democratic societies to fake news and the public's limited ability to contain it. Fake news as a form of information benefits from the fact pace of information dissemination across social media platforms. The relatively small but constantly changing sources of fake news offers a challenge to both algorithms and socio-technical interventions.