{"id":10,"date":"2017-04-24T19:24:55","date_gmt":"2017-04-24T19:24:55","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/research.prattsils.org\/fakenews\/?page_id=10"},"modified":"2017-04-24T19:24:55","modified_gmt":"2017-04-24T19:24:55","slug":"1-a-threat-to-democracy","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/studentwork.prattsi.org\/fakenews\/analysis\/1-a-threat-to-democracy\/","title":{"rendered":"Period 1: “A threat to democracy”"},"content":{"rendered":"

Election Day \u2013 Early December\u00a02016<\/strong><\/h2>\n

\"fakenews-all<\/p>\n

In the days immediately following the November 8, 2016 general election, we see the first true uses of the term \u201cfake news\u201d across both social media and traditional media platforms. In the Twittersphere, we see a major uptick in the use of the term \u201cfake news\u201d, with nearly 40,000 tweets using the term beginning on November 15. In traditional print and digital news media during this time period, we also begin to see the use of the term \u201cfake news\u201d, with a peak of roughly 2,000 uses on November 21. Like Twitter, the first real spike in the use of \u201cfake news\u201d in the TV Archive data is also seen on November 15.<\/p>\n

Facebook and Fake News<\/h3>\n

The context in which the use of the term \u201cfake news\u201d first appears across this range of media platforms is important to note. On November 15th, the New York Times ran an article titled \u201c<\/span>Google and Facebook Take Aim at Fake News Sites<\/span><\/a>\u201d. The impact on Twitter is immediate, with the hashtag \u201c#facebook\u201d quickly becoming the most used hashtag on that day in tweets that also contained the term \u201cfake news\u201d or the concurrent hashtag \u201c#fakenews\u201d. The New York Times Twitter account (@nytimes<\/a>) is also the second-most mentioned username in the \u201c#fakenews\u201d dataset during this period, and the third-most mentioned among \u201cfake news\u201d data. The terms \u201cinternet social networking\u201d are also the most commonly used among articles that also contain the phrase \u201cfake news\u201d in traditional print and digital media, as collected through LexisNexis. The terms \u201cFacebook\u201d and \u201cGoogle\u201d are also far more readily used in the TV Archive data during this period than in any other time period analyzed in this study.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"fake<\/a>

Hashtags associated with “fake news” Tweets<\/p><\/div>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"Mentions<\/a>

Mentions of Facebook over time (LexisNexis)<\/p><\/div>\n

Democracy and Fake News<\/h3>\n

A second spike in the use of the term \u201cfake news\u201d, particularly on Twitter, comes after Barack Obama\u2019s speech on November 17, in which he decries fake news as a \u201c<\/span>threat to democracy<\/span><\/a>\u201d. By the next day we see the largest spike in the use of the term \u201cfake news\u201d across both Twitter datasets during this time period, as well as the largest spike in the usage of the term in the TV Archive (again, during this time period). <\/span><\/p>\n

Sources of Fake News<\/h3>\n

It is important to note that, at this early moment in the current life of the term \u201cfake news\u201d, its use is deeply associated with intentionally fabricated stories<\/a>, circulated largely through social media in one of two ways: either by unsuspecting consumers, or by ill-intentioned individuals or groups looking to alter the outcome of the election through whatever means necessary. It is also important to point out that Donald Trump has not yet used the term \u201cfake news\u201d during this time period, an event that happens on December 10th<\/a> and arguably changes the entire meaning of the phrase.<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\n\n\n
<\/td>\nAnalysis
\nOverview<\/a><\/td>\n		\n

Next \u00a0>
\nPeriod 2: “Ridiculous and untrue”<\/a><\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Election Day \u2013 Early December\u00a02016 In the days immediately following the November 8, 2016 general election, we see the first true uses of the term \u201cfake news\u201d across both social media and traditional media platforms. In the Twittersphere, we see…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":128,"parent":8,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"template-fullwidth.php","meta":{"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-10","page","type-page","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/studentwork.prattsi.org\/fakenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/10","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/studentwork.prattsi.org\/fakenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/studentwork.prattsi.org\/fakenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/studentwork.prattsi.org\/fakenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/studentwork.prattsi.org\/fakenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/studentwork.prattsi.org\/fakenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/10\/revisions"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/studentwork.prattsi.org\/fakenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/8"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/studentwork.prattsi.org\/fakenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/128"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/studentwork.prattsi.org\/fakenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}