Fakes, News and the Election: A New Taxonomy for the Study of Misleading Information within the Hybrid Media System

Giglietto, F., Iannelli, L., Valeriani, A., & Rossi, L. (2019). ‘Fake news’ is the invention of a liar: How false information circulates within the hybrid news system. Current Sociology. DOI: 10.1177/0011392119837536

Convegno AssoComPol 2016 (Urbino, 15-17 Dicembre 2016)

40 Pages Posted: 2 Dec 2016 Last revised: 17 Apr 2019

See all articles by Fabio Giglietto

Fabio Giglietto

University of Urbino Carlo Bo

Laura Iannelli

Università degli Studi di Sassari

Luca Rossi

IT University of Copenhagen

Augusto Valeriani

Università di Bologna

Date Written: November 30, 2016

Abstract

The widely unexpected outcome of the 2016 US Presidential election prompted a broad debate on the role played by “fake-news” circulating on social media during political campaigns. Despite a relatively vast amount of existing literature on the topic, a general lack of conceptual coherence and a rapidly changing news eco-system hinder the development of effective strategies to tackle the issue. Leveraging on four strands of research in the existing scholarship, the paper introduces a radically new model aimed at describing the process through which misleading information spreads within the hybrid media system in the post-truth era. The application of the model results in four different typologies of propagations. These typologies are used to describe real cases of misleading information from the 2016 US Presidential election. The paper discusses the contribution and implication of the model in tackling the issue of misleading information on a theoretical, empirical, and practical level.

Keywords: misinformation, disinformation, hybrid news system, news-making, elections

Suggested Citation

Giglietto, Fabio and Iannelli, Laura and Rossi, Luca and Valeriani, Augusto, Fakes, News and the Election: A New Taxonomy for the Study of Misleading Information within the Hybrid Media System (November 30, 2016). Giglietto, F., Iannelli, L., Valeriani, A., & Rossi, L. (2019). ‘Fake news’ is the invention of a liar: How false information circulates within the hybrid news system. Current Sociology. DOI: 10.1177/0011392119837536, Convegno AssoComPol 2016 (Urbino, 15-17 Dicembre 2016), Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=2878774

Fabio Giglietto (Contact Author)

University of Urbino Carlo Bo ( email )

Via Saffi 15
Urbino, Pesaro-Urbino 61029
Italy
+390722305726 (Phone)
+390722305727 (Fax)

HOME PAGE: http://www.uniurb.it

Laura Iannelli

Università degli Studi di Sassari ( email )

Piazza Universita
Sassari, 07100
Italy

Luca Rossi

IT University of Copenhagen ( email )

Denmark

Augusto Valeriani

Università di Bologna ( email )

Via Zamboni, 33
Bologna, 40126
Italy

HOME PAGE: http://https://www.unibo.it/sitoweb/augusto.valeriani/en

Do you have negative results from your research you’d like to share?

Paper statistics

Downloads
3,530
Abstract Views
10,657
Rank
6,001
PlumX Metrics