Talk on fake news as digital culture given at the Institute for Policy Research symposium on Politics, Fake News and the Post-Truth Era, University of Bath, 14 September 2017. More about the talk here: http://lilianabounegru.org/2017/09/23/fake-news-in-digital-culture-at-2017-institute-for-policy-research-symposium/ More about the event here: http://www.bath.ac.uk/events/politics-fake-news-and-the-post-truth-era/

1. Fake News in Digital Culture
Liliana Bounegru (@bb_liliana)
Ghent University and University of Groningen
Digital Methods Initiative
Public Data Lab

4. 1
Liliana Bounegru
Jonathan Gray
Tommaso Venturini
Michele Mauri
COMPILED BY
A COLLECTION OF RECIPES
FOR THOSE WHO LOVE TO COOK
WITH DIGITAL METHODS
Five Provocations about Fake News
Liliana Bounegru, Mette Simonsen Abildgaard, Andreas Birkbak, Jonathan
Gray, Mathieu Jacomy, Torben Elgaard Jensen, Anders Koed Madsen and
Anders Kristian Munk
Abstract
The 2016 US presidential election has brought fake news into intense
media scrutiny. Some of these narratives embraced an information
“transmission” view whereby the spread of fake news was likened to
that of biological phenomena such as viruses and where deficient
publics were portrayed as agents of pathological diffusion on social
media platforms. In response, a range of solutions, from fact-checking
to technological fixes, have embraced an information deficit model
whereby warnings and corrections of misleading content have been
issued to curb these worrying dynamics. In this article we contend that
fake news is a socio-technical phenomenon that encapsulates central
aspects of our digital environments and cultures and propose five
provocations to enrich current debates around it. These are: (1) there is
more to fake news than publics in need of better education and
information; (2) metaphors matter and fake news is not just a virus in
search of a host; (3) the success of fake news highlights the precarity of
our knowledge-making institutions and practices; (4) to better
understand fake news we should study their production histories and
social lives; and (5) responses to fake news should strive to go beyond
fact-checking and technological fixes. To stimulate future research each
provocation is accompanied by a series of insights, concepts and
approaches drawing on research in Science and Technology Studies
(STS) and associated fields. We hope that these provocations and
analytical lenses will inform research, reflection and interventions
around this digital culture phenomenon which are better attuned to its
dynamics.
Keywords: fake news; STS (science and technology studies); fact
checking; journalism; Trump election; social media

6. (1) There is more to fake news than publics in need of better education and information.
(2) Metaphors matter and fake news is not just a virus in search of a host.
(3) The success of fake news highlights the precarity of our knowledge-making institutions
and practices.
(4) To better understand fake news we should study their production histories and social lives.
(5) Responses to fake news should strive to go beyond fact-checking and technological fixes.
FIVE PROVOCATIONS ABOUT FAKE NEWS
(Bounegru, Abildgaard, Birkbak, Gray, Jacomy, Jensen, Madsen & Munk, forthcoming)

7. FAKE NEWS IS NOT JUST A VIRUS AND
ITS READERS ARE NOT JUST LACKING
BETTER INFORMATION OR EDUCATION

12. 1
Liliana Bounegru
Jonathan Gray
Tommaso Venturini
Michele Mauri
COMPILED BY
A COLLECTION OF RECIPES
FOR THOSE WHO LOVE TO COOK
WITH DIGITAL METHODS

13. PUTTING CONTENT INTO CONTEXT WITH THREE
QUESTIONS (FAKE NEWS AS DIGITAL CULTURE)
1. Who shares it? Fake news (and memes) as modes of political
participation.
2. How does it circulate? The life cycle of fake news online.
2. What tracking networks is it embedded in? The techno-commercial underpinnings of fake
news.

14. 1. WHO SHARES IT?
FAKE NEWS AND MEMES AS MODES
OF POLITICAL PARTICIPATION

18. 2. HOW DOES IT CIRCULATE?
THE LIFE CYCLE OF A FAKE
NEWS STORY ONLINE

22. 3. WHAT TRACKING NETWORKS IS IT
EMBEDDED IN?
THE TECHNO-COMMERCIAL
UNDERPINNINGS OF FAKE NEWS

26. CONCLUSION

27. fakenews.publicdatalab.org
Liliana Bounegru | lilianabounegru.org | @bb_liliana