Fake News: Fake Causes & Real Solutions

Fake News: Fake Causes & Real Solutions

Recent elections, including the 2016 UK Referendum on Brexit and the 2017 US election, have seen a great deal of discussion about fake news. How exactly has the discussion of fake become so central to debates about modern democracy? In this talk, Nick Anstead will examine the difficulty of defining fake news and the evidence that it has political consequences. He will argue that there is too great a tendency to see the problem of fake news as technological, when the reality is that the underlying causes are political, social and economic. This analysis has important ramifications for how societies seek to combat fake news and ensure a knowledgeable and engaged electorate.