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Utah's Foremost Platform for Undergraduate Research Presentation
2018 Abstracts

The growing phenomenon of fake news beyond satire.

Candy Roland, Dixie State University

Fake news has been known, defined and researched in the context of satire. However, a growing trend is the production, consumption and distribution of fake news in the form of actual malice. In fact, Pulitzer Prize winner and political debunking website, PolitiFact.com awarded its 8th annual “Lie of the Year” to the fake news phenomenon for 2016. This form of fake news is typically written by non-professionals, who pursue agendas or exploit internet culture for payment. Even though noxious fake news, like satirical fake news, is fictional and made with or without the intent of harm, it can have consequences that impact real life. This study is a content analysis that categorizes the believability of online news consumers who distributed or interacted with the top 10 fake news articles of 2016 on Facebook.