The reach of commercially motivated junk news on Facebook

Commercially motivated junk news -- i.e. money-driven, highly shareable clickbait with low journalistic production standards -- constitutes a vast and largely unexplored news media ecosystem. Using publicly available Facebook data, we compared the reach of junk news on Facebook pages in the Netherlands to the reach of Dutch mainstream news on Facebook. During the period 2013-2017 the total number of user interactions with junk news significantly exceeded that with mainstream news. Over 5 Million of the 10 Million Dutch Facebook users have interacted with a junk news post at least once. Junk news Facebook pages also had a significantly stronger increase in the number of user interactions over time than mainstream news. Since the beginning of 2016 the average number of user interactions per junk news post has consistently exceeded the average number of user interactions per mainstream news post.Comment: 18 pages, 4 figures, submitted pre-prin

Manufacturing Polarization: The Role Of The Internet In Corporate Media And Opinion Formation

The primary concern of this thesis is tracing and articulating the political consequences of the Internet as applied to the formation of public opinion. This thesis will present a critical interpretation of a larger theoretical problem while concentrating on two related empirical cases. The broad question that this thesis will ultimately address is this: how, and to what extent has the Internet provided a new platform for the continued ideological hegemony of the American elite? Can an empiric relation be drawn between the rise of Internet-based technologies and contemporary political polarization in public opinion? How has the digital market for media affected the content as well as the production of the news? By reevaluating two lead accounts of news media production and opinion formation, this thesis will argue that the market forces of the digital environment have pushed the American people to the political extremes, which has provided the elite with an unexpected opportunity to further solidify their philosophy as the dominant American ideology. In addressing this argument, this thesis will also explore an unexpected commonality between two different political scientists, Noam Chomsky and John Zaller, in which their two different models actually work to complement one another’s broader conclusions

Disinformation in the Brazilian pre-election context: probing the content, spread and implications of fake news about Lula da Silva

This research scrutinizes the content, spread, and implications of disinformation in Brazil’s 2018 pre-election period. It focuses specifically on the most widely shared fake news about Lula da Silva and links these with the preexisting polarization and political radicalization, ascertaining the role of context. The research relied on a case study and mixed-methods approach that combined an online data collection of content, spread, propagators, and interactions’ analyses, with in-depth analysis of the meaning of such fake news. The results show that the most successful fake news about Lula capitalized on prior hostility toward him, several originated or were spread by conservative right-wing politicians and mainstream journalists, and that the pro-Lula fake news circulated in smaller networks and had overall less global reach. Facebook and WhatsApp were the main dissemination platforms of these contents.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Social media, political polarization, and political disinformation: a review of the scientific literature

The following report is intended to provide an overview of the current state of the literature on the relationship between social media; political polarization; and political “disinformation,” a term used to encompass a wide range of types of information about politics found online, including “fake news,” rumors, deliberately factually incorrect information, inadvertently factually incorrect information, politically slanted information, and “hyperpartisan” news. The review of the literature is provided in six separate sections, each of which can be read individually but that cumulatively are intended to provide an overview of what is known — and unknown — about the relationship between social media, political polarization, and disinformation. The report concludes by identifying key gaps in our understanding of these phenomena and the data that are needed to address them

Social media, political polarization, and political disinformation: a review of the scientific literature

The following report is intended to provide an overview of the current state of the literature on the relationship between social media; political polarization; and political “disinformation,” a term used to encompass a wide range of types of information about politics found online, including “fake news,” rumors, deliberately factually incorrect information, inadvertently factually incorrect information, politically slanted information, and “hyperpartisan” news. The review of the literature is provided in six separate sections, each of which can be read individually but that cumulatively are intended to provide an overview of what is known — and unknown — about the relationship between social media, political polarization, and disinformation. The report concludes by identifying key gaps in our understanding of these phenomena and the data that are needed to address them

Fake News Perception in Germany: A Representative Study of People’s Attitudes and Approaches to Counteract Disinformation

Fake news has become an important topic in our social and political environment. While research is coming up for the U.S. and European countries, many aspects remain uncovered as long as existing work only marginally investigates people’s attitudes towards fake news. In this work, we present the results of a representative study (N=1023) in Germany asking participants about their attitudes towards fake news and approaches to counteract disinformation. More than 80% of the participants agree that fake news poses a threat. 78% see fake news as harming democracy. Even though about half of the respondents (48%) have noticed fake news, most participants stated to have never liked, shared or commented on fake news. Regarding demographic factors, our findings support the view of younger and relatively educated people being more informed about fake news. Concerning ideological motives, the evaluation suggests left-wing or liberal respondents to be more critical of fake news