Apuke, Oberiri Destiny, and Bahiyah Omar. “Fake News Proliferation in Nigeria: Consequences, Motivations, and Prevention Through Awareness Strategies.” Humanities & Social Sciences Reviews, vol. 8, no. 2, 2020, pp. 318–327.
This article discusses fake news in the Nigerian context and the importance of awareness strategies, relying on the teaching experience of two lecturers from Taraba State University and Universiti Sains Malaysia. There are many reasons for promoting false information among social media users, and this study clarifies how ineffective information literacy and education can challenge modern society. Compared to other studies in this bibliography list, Apuke and Omar conduct documentary research to investigate the spread of fake news and its impact on people with different backgrounds (319).
The information offered online never disappeared, and it is hard to ignore its presence in human lives. Social media users must be constantly informed and educated with the help of adequate advertisements and workshops to understand how to distinguish between false and accurate material. Despite its evident shortages like narrow context and empirical explanations, the article becomes a solid background for future researchers to identify the role of awareness in fake news promotion. The authors conclude that the spread of fake news can be stopped if people pay more attention to the source’s credibility, the authors’ authority, and the presence of supporting sources.
Li, Jianing, and Min-Hsin Su. “Real Talk About Fake News: Identity Language and Disconnected Networks of the US Public’s “Fake News” Discourse on Twitter.” Social Media+ Society, vol. 6, no. 2, 2020, pp. 1-14. SAGE. Web.
The main goals of the article are to study fake news, compare the main characteristics of misinformation and disinformation, and clarify the processes of consumption and dissemination. The authors have already successfully discussed the impact of communication technologies and misconceptions on social media. The current project addresses the peculiarities of the Trump presidency about fake and dishonest information online, which is a distinctive feature of the article. The chosen discursive approach to understanding fake news and related challenges contributes to solid theoretical implications concerning the connection between social media and fake news.
Li and Su introduce definitions of fake news from liberal and conservative points of view and conclude that false information has already become a political practice among ordinary citizens (12). The strengths of this project are attention to opposing discourses and the introduction of new concepts that help deepen the essence of fake news. Still, the limitations related to the chosen American context and Twitter as the only source of fake information cannot be ignored. Future projects may use this article to formulate new judgments and promote additional theoretical perspectives on fake news.
Olan, Femi, et al. “Fake News on Social Media: The Impact on Society.” Information Systems Frontiers, 2022. Springer. Web.
In this article, the authors aim to introduce a new framework for reviewing the associations between fake news, social media, and societal acceptance and analyzing if society’s efforts are enough to manage fake news. All authors are lecturers in specific business schools, and their collaboration creates a professional background for the current study. The main ideas are based on clearly defining the major concepts and discussing critical issues for differentiating between facts, truths, lies, and beliefs. Understanding fake news content plays a vital role in conducting research, and the authors find it necessary to focus on political changes and other social challenges like COVID-19 (Olan et al.).
The major strength of this study is creating a framework that underlines the role of social acceptance in recognizing fake news. The limitations related to a limited number of constructs and social media users may only be improved in future research by adding new locations and differentiating the demographics of users. The risks of fake news may be commonly recognized by implementing fact-checking tools to enhance trust and confident relationships in society.
Polletta, Francesca, and Jessica Callahan. “Deep Stories, Nostalgia Narratives, and Fake News: Storytelling in the Trump Era.” Politics of Meaning/Meaning of Politics: Cultural Sociology of the 2016 U.S. Presidential Election, edited by Jason L. Mast and Jeffrey C. Alexander, 2018, Springer, pp. 55–73.
The promotion and novel identification of fake news during the Trump era is a core theme of the chosen chapter. The authors evaluate the quality of narrations people share and their purposes in explaining the introduction of fake or unreliable facts. Compared to other sources chosen for this project, this work draws the reader’s attention to the worth of storytelling in the media and online communication (Polletta and Callahan 56).
In a short period, the news was distributed between right- and left-wing opinions, and people could rely on the news they found more positive and related to their lives and backgrounds. Instead of checking the quality of facts, people only focus on their interests and opinions. Thus, the strength of this chapter is the recognition of personal contributions to the promotion of fake news. The authors refer to various scholarly sources to support their standpoints, but their weakness is the absence of original research and a lack of transparent methodology. In conclusion, attention is paid to differentiating storytelling and news to understand when a simple story becomes fake.
Talwar, Shalini, et al. “Sharing of Fake News on Social Media: Application of the Honeycomb Framework and the Third-Person Effect Hypothesis. Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, vol. 57, 2020. Elsevier. Web.
The Internet is one of the most evident sources where fake news emerges and reaches the population, provoking different emotions, actions, and consequences. This article aims to identify the manifestations of behaviors related to fake news and clarify the associations between these manifestations in different social media users. The same team of authors has already created several credible studies about online services, trust between Internet users, and the damage imposed by social media. Their knowledge and research experience help to adopt a mixed-method project to analyze fake news-sharing behaviors and check the appropriateness of a new third-person effect hypothesis (Talwar et al.).
Self-reported information and a lack of causality are the shortages of the current study. Still, applying a mixed research method to create awareness and promote a positive effect on fake news distribution introduces a strong background for new studies in the same field. It is concluded that the qualifications of social media users determine the growth of fake news and improve the reputation of organizations and brands that social media attempts to penetrate.
Zhou, Xinyi, and Reza Zafarani. “A Survey of Fake News.” ACM Computing Surveys, vol. 53, no. 5, 2020, pp. 1–40. Association for Computing Machinery. Web.
In a world that strives for equality, democracy, and freedom of expression, fake news creates one of the most severe threats to people. The article’s main idea is that Zhou and Zafarani suggest detecting fake news by examining knowledge, writing style, propagation patterns, and source credibility (8). The current survey distinguishes itself from other projects due to its identification of fake news as a current problem, its relation to other types of news (deceptive or satire), and the challenges of examining the context.
The authors explain why fake news emerges and what can be done to reduce its negative impact, which is the article’s strength. The authors introduced their first project on fake news detection several years ago and were reviewed and published in credible journals. Their decision to continue this project is based on introducing new calculations of fake news characteristics, which are hard for an ordinary reader to understand. The authors conclude that the negative impact may be predicted with checking lists, and positive interventions can be applied.