Measuring the News and Its Impact on Democracy
2021
Since the 2016 U.S. presidential election, the deliberate spread of misinformation online, and on social media in particular, has generated extraordinary concern, in large part because of its potential effects on public opinion, political polarization, and ultimately democratic decision making.
Recently, however, some have argued that both the prevalence and consumption of “fake news” per se is extremely low compared with other types of news and news-relevant content. Although neither prevalence nor consumption is a direct measure of influence, this work suggests that proper understanding of misinformation and its effects requires a much broader view of the problem, encompassing biased and misleading – but not necessarily factually incorrect – information that is routinely produced or amplified by mainstream news organizations.
This description was extracted from the publication abstract.
Measuring the News and Its Impact on Democracy
Source:
Watts DJ, Rothschild DM, Mobius M. Measuring the News and Its Impact on Democracy. PNAS 2021; 118 (15). https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1912443118