This document discusses fake news and its potential influence on elections. It provides examples of fake news stories that spread on Facebook during the 2016 US presidential election. It also discusses definitions of fake news, the types of fake news identified by First Draft, and analyses of fake news submitted to the UK Parliament's inquiry. It argues that fake news can negatively impact democracy by misinforming citizens and producing polarized societies with decreased confidence in government.

1. Vian Bakir
v.bakir@bangor.ac.uk

2. Bakir, V. 2018. Intelligence Elites and Public
Accountability: Relationships of Influence with Civil
Society. Routledge.
And coming soon …

4. Did fake news influence
2016 US presidential
election?
 Maybe!
 See: “Donald Trump as President? Thank Facebook.”
EzyInsights, November 1 2016. https://ezyinsights.com/donald-
trump-as-president-thank-facebook/
Facebook spread 2 categories of fake news
 Deceptive/emotive messages (esp. captioned
images) from far right online news outlets eg
Breitbart.
 Stories that look like news from other news outlets,
but that are made up

5. Breitbart is …

6. Breitbart - On candidate’s
personality

7. Breitbart - On ‘Establishment’ News Media

8. Breitbart - On Voters

9. Breitbart - On Policy Issues

10. Stories that look like news from other
news outlets

11. Silverman’s analysis: a top 20 false
election story (by Facebook engagement)

12. Fact-checker Snopes rates this story part
true, part false

13. 960,000
Facebook
shares,
likes &
comments
Stories
that look
like news
from other
news
outlets

14. Fact-checker Snopes rates this story false

15. Stories that look like news from other news
outlets
BuzzFeed - most viral fake news stories
(2016)
“Obama Signs Executive Order Banning The
Pledge Of Allegiance In Schools Nationwide”
(abcnews.com.co)
“Woman arrested for defecating on boss’ desk
after winning the lottery” (thevalleyreport.com)
“Pope Francis Shocks World, Endorses Donald
Trump for President, Releases Statement” (Ending
the Fed)
“Trump Offering Free One-Way Tickets to Africa &
Mexico for Those Who Wanna Leave America”

16. Cummings, D. 2017. How the Brexit referendum was won. The Spectator, 9
Jan.
https://blogs.spectator.co.uk/2017/01/dominic-cummings-brexit-referendum-won/

17. What is fake news?

18. What is fake news?

19. What is fake news?
 Wardle finds 7 types (First Draft 2017):
 false connection (headlines, visuals or captions don’t support content)
 false context (genuine content shared with false contextual info)
 manipulated content (genuine imagery/info manipulated to deceive)
 misleading content (misleading use of info to frame issue/person)
 imposter content (genuine sources impersonated)
 fabricated content (100% false, designed to deceive/harm)
 satire/parody (has potential to fool but no intention to harm)
 Fake news is either wholly false or contains deliberately
misleading elements incorporated within its content or context
(Bakir & McStay 2017).

20. What is fake news?
 Contemporary fake news is widely circulated online
where people accept as fact stories of uncertain
provenance or accuracy

21. Solving the complex web of fake news
Lessons from Deception in
Political Campaigning

22. Fake News Inquiry submissions
propose we focus on …
 Education
 to increase people’s media/digital literacy so they
can recognise fake news
 Media organisations
 to promote pluralistic media economy so quality
news outlets can flourish
 to encourage journalists to tell truth
 Digital intermediaries eg Google, Facebook
 to divert funds from their digital ad revenue streams
to support financially struggling news outlets
 to promote real news & downgrade fake news sites

23. Fake News Inquiry submissions
propose we focus on …
 Advertisers
 to consider health of media landscape with
Google/Facebook duopoly in digital ad
market
 to ensure behavioural ad systems don’t
incentivise fake news creation
 Professional persuaders and PR
 to regulate political campaigning to avoid
deception

24. Fake News Inquiry submissions
propose we focus on …
1. Education
2. Media organisations
3. Digital intermediaries eg Google, Facebook
4. Advertisers
5. Professional persuaders and PR

25. Focussing on
professional persuaders
& PR
 Problematic culture of deceit
 Public attitudes on standards in public life value
honesty & telling truth - UK Committee on Standards in Public
Life
 We need to change actors’ incentives to mislead to
win elections/achieve policy goals - Prof Lewandowsky et al
(Univ of Bristol)
 PR industry must be less deceptive -Bakir et al (Bangor
Univ)
 Politicians should always offer arguments based on
evidence/analysis - Lilleker et al (Bournemouth Univ)

26. Pew Research Centre 2017

27. Ipsos Mori 2016

28. Ipsos Mori 2016

29. Ipsos Mori 2016

30. Focusing on professional
persuaders & PR
 Many urge regulation of political
campaigning
 QC (K.P.E.Lasok QC)
 academics
 Mark Leiser (Univ of Strathclyde) New Political Communication Unit
(Royal Holloway Univ of London)
 Martin Moore (King’s College London)
 website on the strategies, appeal & effectiveness
of political ads (politicaladvertising.co.uk)
 factchecking charity (Full Fact)
 citizen/consumer interests charity (Voice of the Listener)

31. Focusing on professional
persuaders & PR
 But, to protect freedom of political speech, new
censorship should be proportionate measure of
last resort
 IMPRESS The Independent Monitor for the Press
 Public Relations and Communications Association
 international charity to empower local media
worldwide to give people news they need (Internews)
 academic historians of propaganda, comms & rumour
(Coast et al, Bath Spa Univ)

32. media freedom is increasingly fragile in democracie
Reporters Without Borders Press Freedom Index 2017

33. Focus on professional
persuaders & PR indirectly - how
journalists use sources
 more transparency of sources in news content &
policy debates, eg use of think tanks & their
research
 Bakir et al (Bangor Univ)
 Tobacco Control Research Group (Univ of Bath)
 typology of deception (lies, omissions, distortion,
misdirection, bullshit) to enable journalists to better
recognise & avoid propaganda
 Bakir et al (Bangor Univ)

34. Does Fake News Matter?
Yes!
 It produces wrongly informed citizens
 Echo chambers mean many stay wrongly
informed
 It produces deliberately affective content

35. Does Fake News Matter?
Yes!
 If fake news circulates, uncorrected, in closed
communities; if people are indoctrinated to
disbelieve truthful facts by damaging the reputation
of mainstream news; and if that fake news is
deliberately affective, inflammatory and deceptive,
this is bad news for democratically informed citizens,
and for democracy itself.

36. Does Fake News Matter?
Yes!
 If losers lose an election or referendum or policy
decision based on what they perceive to be the
winners’ false claims, then ensuing social discontent
with the democratic outcome and process is likely.
The logical end result is highly polarised societies,
losers’ decreased confidence in government’s
legitimacy, and inappropriate democratic decisions
taken based on affective misinformation and
disinformation.

37. Next steps
 Across 2017, UK Information Commissioner’s Office
is inquiring into how voters’ personal data is being
captured/exploited in political campaigns.
 What about a Parliamentary Inquiry into Deception
in Political Campaigning ?

38. Resources …
 Vian Bakir & Andrew McStay (2017). Fake News
and The Economy of Emotions: Problems, causes,
solutions, Digital Journalism Pages: 1-22. DOI:
10.1080/21670811.2017.1345645.
 Analysis of fake news solutions offered by tech,
journalism & marketing industries at SXSW (Austin,
Texas, 2017)
 Offers practical recommendations for
communications industries & regulators.

39. Resources …
 My submissions to UK fake news inquiry (2017)
 They offer recommendations to counter fake news
 With A. McStay (Bangor Univ.) Fake News: Media
Economics and Emotional Button-Pushing.
 With P. Robinson (Univ. of Sheffield), D. Miller (Univ.
of Bath) and C. Simpson (American Univ.) Fake
News: A Framework for Detecting and Avoiding
Propaganda.

40. Resources …
 Vian Bakir & Andrew McStay. COMBATTING FAKE
NEWS: ANALYSIS OF SUBMISSIONS TO THE UK
PARLIAMENT’S CULTURE, MEDIA AND SPORT
COMMITTEE FAKE NEWS INQUIRY. Three-D Issue 28.
05/05/2017
 Analysis of Fake News Inquiry’s 78 submissions received
by Jun 2017.
 Provides overview of solutions offered by the submissions,
& assesses which solutions are most needed/useful.

41. Resources …
 Bakir, V. and McStay, A. 2017. Was it ‘AI wot won it’?
Hyper-targeting and profiling emotions online. UK
Election Analysis 2017. Bournemouth University.
http://www.electionanalysis.uk/uk-election-analysis-2017/section-5-
the-digital-campaign/was-it-ai-wot-won-it-hyper-targeting-and-profiling-
emotions-online/
 Analysis of hyper-targeting and profiling emotions
online in EU Referendum campaign