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Social networks are becoming one of the most important sources of news, especially among young people. The traditional media, in particular, are steadily losing ground, both in terms of perceived reliability and as a preferred news source (Reuters, 2019; Statista, 2019; Notley et al. 2017). Even in their role as 'mediators' between news-makers and the public, media are suffering a form of disintermediation. Celebrities, politicians and protagonists of the world of culture bypass all of the 'old' media by communicating directly with the public via channels such as Twitter or Instagram (Mazzoleni, 2017). At the same time, however, we are witnessing a transformation in the epistemic perception of online information sources: trusting in a source because some form of recognised outside authority guarantees it is giving way to trusting in a source because we personally believe it to be authoritative and credible, often independently of its institutional role or expertise (Fonagy et al., 2017).
This problem is a risk for society as a whole now that people are exposed to news and content that is inexact or entirely untrue: what is now known as 'fake news' (Zhang & Ghorbani, 2020) (Lazer et al., 2018). Though fake news is generated inadvertently at times, it is very often the result of processes designed to change attitudes and opinion in a variety of social and political contexts (Wardle & Derakhshan, 2018). Some scholars thus distinguish 'dis-information' (i.e., information that is false and deliberately created), 'mis-information' (defined as information that is false although the person disseminating it believes it to be true) and mal-information (which is genuine information or opinion shared to cause harm, e.g., hate speech, harassment, etc.) (Wardle & Derakhshan, 2017). A significant amount of news originates on mainstream media websites and is then posted and discussed on social networks. On the other hand, some news does not come from readily traceable and verifiable sources and generally concerns issues that the public views as having a strong emotional impact. Consequently, it features communication styles, intentionality and content calculated to cause surprise, exasperation or indignation (Bakir & McStay, 2017).