A talk about fake news and post truth to Swedish science journalists at LSE on May 15th 2017

1. ‘Fake news’ is good news for
journalism
Prof Charlie Beckett
@CharlieBeckett
May 2017

2. How well do facts travel?

3. How ’truth’ travels badly

4. Tinbergen’s ‘fake news’
• Combination of memorable image, striking
claims, active authors = misreading of facts
• Harvard shop starts selling stickers – even
though there is no evidence of it working –
original disputed experiment was with moving
bird silhouette

7. Why fake news is good news
• Makes mainstream media look good
• Improves ratings and subscriptions
• Forces the social networks to be responsible
• Creates a debate about information & news
• Increases news literacy
• Wake up call to wider set of problems

8. The next phase of online history

10. SaaS (Software as a Service) Era

11. Abundance of sources

12. Abundance of sources = choice?

13. Abundance of sources = specialisation

14. Abundance of sources = lack of trust?

15. Mixed media ecology: legacy, native &
social

16. Blended, personal, emotional

18. SaaS (Software as a Service) Era

19. SaaS (Stories as a Service)
• Connect – be accessible and present on all platforms
• Curate – help users to good content where ever it is
• Be relevant – use users’ language and ‘listen’ creatively
with data
• Be expert – add value, insight, experience, context
• Be truthful – fact checking, balance, accuracy
• Be human – show empathy, diversity, constructive
• Transparency – show sources, be accountable, allow
criticism

21. Public service as ‘subscription’
• Data = listening, but for what purpose?
• Personalisation = relevance, but who decides?
• Follow up/interactivity/notification =
relationship – but what for?
• Deepening/localising = value added, but
whose values?
• Subscription funnel/membership: but what
values shape your strategy?

23. Contact me:
Prof Charlie Beckett
Polis, LSE
@CharlieBeckett
c.h.beckett@lse.ac.uk