Beyond detection and correction: Fake news’ «news-ness» and «shareworthiness» as alternative ways to tackle disinformation

Fake news is a concern for present-day society. A lot of quality research efforts have focused on how fake news can be detected, and to what extent general warnings, accuracy prompts and fact-checking labels can correct people’s misconceptions. In this work we problematize critically the research q...

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Main Author: Raúl Rodríguez-Ferrándiz
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: Universidad de Navarra 2025-01-01
Series:Communication & Society (Formerly Comunicación y Sociedad)
Subjects:
Online Access:https://revistas.unav.edu/index.php/communication-and-society/article/view/50063
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author Raúl Rodríguez-Ferrándiz
author_facet Raúl Rodríguez-Ferrándiz
author_sort Raúl Rodríguez-Ferrándiz
collection DOAJ
description Fake news is a concern for present-day society. A lot of quality research efforts have focused on how fake news can be detected, and to what extent general warnings, accuracy prompts and fact-checking labels can correct people’s misconceptions. In this work we problematize critically the research questions formulated on fakeness detection and specifically we address two significant alternative (though complementary) approaches: 1) What formal traits and news values do fake news best imitate, which sheds light on what “news” means (irrespective of falsity) since the rise of social media as news source (news-ness assessment), and 2) what factors explain fake news sharing (shareworthiness prediction), which explains why it is shared with a higher intensity than real news, even in the case of awareness that a falsity is being shared. Intertwined with these approaches, two theories compete to best explain fake news’ social pervasiveness and virality: the ignorance theory (aptitudes: be mistaken, confused or careless about assessing news accuracy, resulting in sharing falsehoods unintentionally) and the partisan theory (attitudes: motivated reasoning and political bias which encourages people to knowingly share fake news consistent with their view). The aim is twofold: to identify, compare and challenge the scholars’ underlying assumptions and practical implications, and to draw a coherent narrative that encompasses the motivation to deceive, the social media affordances that make this deception plausible and shareable, and the polarization, intergroup hostility, and the greater exposure to extreme political views that may boost disinformation.
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record_format Article
series Communication & Society (Formerly Comunicación y Sociedad)
spelling doaj-art-6e2612c09e3a4b1d8c86973fecbddadc2025-01-08T13:41:17ZengUniversidad de NavarraCommunication & Society (Formerly Comunicación y Sociedad)2386-78762025-01-0110.15581/003.38.1.005Beyond detection and correction: Fake news’ «news-ness» and «shareworthiness» as alternative ways to tackle disinformationRaúl Rodríguez-Ferrándiz0Universidad de Alicante Fake news is a concern for present-day society. A lot of quality research efforts have focused on how fake news can be detected, and to what extent general warnings, accuracy prompts and fact-checking labels can correct people’s misconceptions. In this work we problematize critically the research questions formulated on fakeness detection and specifically we address two significant alternative (though complementary) approaches: 1) What formal traits and news values do fake news best imitate, which sheds light on what “news” means (irrespective of falsity) since the rise of social media as news source (news-ness assessment), and 2) what factors explain fake news sharing (shareworthiness prediction), which explains why it is shared with a higher intensity than real news, even in the case of awareness that a falsity is being shared. Intertwined with these approaches, two theories compete to best explain fake news’ social pervasiveness and virality: the ignorance theory (aptitudes: be mistaken, confused or careless about assessing news accuracy, resulting in sharing falsehoods unintentionally) and the partisan theory (attitudes: motivated reasoning and political bias which encourages people to knowingly share fake news consistent with their view). The aim is twofold: to identify, compare and challenge the scholars’ underlying assumptions and practical implications, and to draw a coherent narrative that encompasses the motivation to deceive, the social media affordances that make this deception plausible and shareable, and the polarization, intergroup hostility, and the greater exposure to extreme political views that may boost disinformation. https://revistas.unav.edu/index.php/communication-and-society/article/view/50063Fake newsfakenessnews-nessshareworithinessignorance theorypartisanship theory
spellingShingle Raúl Rodríguez-Ferrándiz
Beyond detection and correction: Fake news’ «news-ness» and «shareworthiness» as alternative ways to tackle disinformation
Communication & Society (Formerly Comunicación y Sociedad)
Fake news
fakeness
news-ness
shareworithiness
ignorance theory
partisanship theory
title Beyond detection and correction: Fake news’ «news-ness» and «shareworthiness» as alternative ways to tackle disinformation
title_full Beyond detection and correction: Fake news’ «news-ness» and «shareworthiness» as alternative ways to tackle disinformation
title_fullStr Beyond detection and correction: Fake news’ «news-ness» and «shareworthiness» as alternative ways to tackle disinformation
title_full_unstemmed Beyond detection and correction: Fake news’ «news-ness» and «shareworthiness» as alternative ways to tackle disinformation
title_short Beyond detection and correction: Fake news’ «news-ness» and «shareworthiness» as alternative ways to tackle disinformation
title_sort beyond detection and correction fake news news ness and shareworthiness as alternative ways to tackle disinformation
topic Fake news
fakeness
news-ness
shareworithiness
ignorance theory
partisanship theory
url https://revistas.unav.edu/index.php/communication-and-society/article/view/50063
work_keys_str_mv AT raulrodriguezferrandiz beyonddetectionandcorrectionfakenewsnewsnessandshareworthinessasalternativewaystotackledisinformation