Fake news, a political communication phenomenon among journalism, politics, and democracy
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.5007/1984-6924.2019v16n2p33Abstract
The article discusses the phenomenon of fake news or the use of stories about facts invented or purposely altered for political purposes. The bottom line has to do with the complicated interactions between fake news and journalism, on the one hand, and fake news, politics and democracy, on the other. It starts from a brief recognition of the effect of the widespread dissemination and consumption of false narratives, especially in the electoral context, and goes through an attempt at conceptual organization of the notions involved in a consistent definition of fake news. It then goes through an outline of the social phenomena that allowed the emergence of the epistemic crisis in contemporary politics, and presents a study with a sample of 14 histories proven forged on the subject of electronic voting fraud, which circulated during the Brazilian presidential campaign of 2018. Finally, the article draws some conclusions about the meaning and scope of fake news between journalism and democracy.
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