Fake news – the journalists’ perspective Dr Glenda Cooper City University London @glendacooper

‘Fake news and the Public’ – Harpers’ Magazine “Once the news faker obtains access to the press wires all the honest editors alive will not be able to repair the mischief he can do. An editor receiving a news item over the wire has no opportunity to test its authenticity as he would in the case of a local report. The offices of the members of The Associated Press in this country are connected with one another, and its centers of news gathering and distribution by a system of telegraph wires that in a single circuit would extend five times around the globe. This constitutes a very sensitive organism. Put your finger on it in New York, and it vibrates in San Francisco.”

….that was written in 1925! substitute Facebook and Google for AP and it could have been written today

Journalists and Fake News The history of fakery Journalists as purveyors of fake news Journalists as defenders of fact against fake news Can journalists see the debate as an opportunity? Innovations for/by journalists to combat fake news

The history of fake news Fake news has been around as long as people have spread information – 1200BC and Rameses the Great Took off with 1439 and invention of the printing press New York Sun’s Great Moon Hoax of 1835 Objectivity only really becomes a selling point in the last century or so ----- Meeting Notes (30/08/2017 20:49) ----- Rameses the Great and Battle of Kadesh - lost it but commissioned painting on temples to commemorate a great victory

The change: fake news and the internet Distribution and cost - Unlike earlier, the cost of publishing (via Wordpress etc) and distributing (via social networks) approached zero Audiences and Trust – Given these much lower costs, reputations are far more expendable Law and regulation – Much lower costs, far more operators involved in exchanging information – and hugely difficult to regulate.

Seven types of fake news (Wardle, 2017)

Buzzfeed & Fake News in the US election

Facebook and Fake News December 2016, Facebook announced it was introducing a tool to allow readers to flag possible fake stories which the social media giant would then send to fact checkers to verify (Jamieson and Solon, 2016) May 2017. Ahead of UK election Facebook places full page advertisements in newspapers in order to alert readers to signs of fake news on its site (Murgia, 2017). August 2017 Facebook blocks ads from pages which spread fake news

Not just individuals…..’cybertroops’ organised by governments (Bradshaw & Howard, 2017)

Could fake news be a good thing for journalists? Gives mainstream media a chance to show it has value based on’ expertise and ethics, engagement and experience’ (Beckett, 2017) New business model of fact checking, myth busting can be developed Renewed interest in media literacy

What should we be doing Journalists Media organisations Curate better Be truthful Be transparent Show expertise Verify Filter out fake news better Promote media literacy Give the audience better indications of quality of content Ensure those who report accurately are rewarded

Full Fact – useful for both journalists and audience

First Draft

DMINR Web-based data mining tool It will mine information, search and find connections through bringing together public data, search, and social media and other APIs Examples might include property, police, legal, company data, EU, World Bank, ONS, location based data, Google’s API and social media Will help both as a research tool and a fact-checking tool To be tested in 30 newsrooms

Conclusions ‘Fake news’ has had less purchase in the UK because of journalistic history But there has been a realisation that better verification, fact checking needs to be done Opportunity for journalists/media organisations to benefit if they can present themselves as trustworthy and transparent