does social media = "fake"?

"News is not information, it is drama"  - James Carey 

If you hate the term "Fake News" or just want a better understanding, this is a fantastic article. 

The article begins with an excellent analysis of why this content is created: 

There are four distinct motivations for why people do this: political, financial, psychological (for personal satisfaction) and social (to reinforce our belonging to communities or "tribes")"(Wardle/Derakhahan) 

This is an interesting idea, to look at the motivation behind the concept of fake news, why is it created, and why is it effective? The authors go on to argue that the "social networks are engineered so that we are constantly assessing others- and being assessed ourselves"(Wardle/Derakhahan). We seek to find value and identity for ourselves in the online personas that we have created. These are increasingly how we "brand" ourselves to the public at large. This is how we advertise to others our beliefs, values, and political alliances by "likes" and hearts. "The act of sharing is often about signaling to others that we agree with the sentiment of the message, or that even if we don't agree, we recognize it as important and worth paying attention to" (Wardle/Derakhahan).

Wardle and Derakhahan state that: "If we are serious about slowing down the dissemination of mis- and disinformation, we need to start recognizing the emotional and social drivers that shape people's relationship with information."

They later go one that until we can adjust our need to "appear informed" to others across social media platforms the dissemination of mis- and disinformation is unlikely to slow down. We are eager to appear educated to the news and current events that are happening around us without looking further into the story and "being informed"

To read the full article clack here:
How did the news go ‘fake’? When the media went social