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What Is (Fake) News? Analyzing News Values (and More) in Fake Stories

Author

Listed:
  • Edson C. Tandoc Jr.

    (Wee Kim Wee School of Communication and Information, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore)

  • Ryan J. Thomas

    (Missouri School of Journalism, University of Missouri, USA)

  • Lauren Bishop

    (Missouri School of Journalism, University of Missouri, USA)

Abstract

‘Fake news’ has been a topic of controversy during and following the 2016 U.S. presidential election. Much of the scholarship on it to date has focused on the ‘fakeness’ of fake news, illuminating the kinds of deception involved and the motivations of those who deceive. This study looks at the ‘newsness’ of fake news by examining the extent to which it imitates the characteristics and conventions of traditional journalism. Through a content analysis of 886 fake news articles, we find that in terms of news values, topic, and formats, articles published by fake news sites look very much like traditional—and real—news. Most of their articles included the news values of timeliness, negativity, and prominence; were about government and politics; and were written in an inverted pyramid format. However, one point of departure is in terms of objectivity, operationalized as the absence of the author’s personal opinion. The analysis found that the majority of articles analyzed included the opinion of their author or authors.

Suggested Citation

  • Edson C. Tandoc Jr. & Ryan J. Thomas & Lauren Bishop, 2021. "What Is (Fake) News? Analyzing News Values (and More) in Fake Stories," Media and Communication, Cogitatio Press, vol. 9(1), pages 110-119.
    • Handle: RePEc:cog:meanco:v:9:y:2021:i:1:p:110-119
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    1. J. Eric Oliver & Thomas J. Wood, 2014. "Conspiracy Theories and the Paranoid Style(s) of Mass Opinion," American Journal of Political Science, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 58(4), pages 952-966, October.
    2. Hunt Allcott & Matthew Gentzkow, 2017. "Social Media and Fake News in the 2016 Election," NBER Working Papers 23089, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    3. Charles S. Taber & Milton Lodge, 2006. "Motivated Skepticism in the Evaluation of Political Beliefs," American Journal of Political Science, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 50(3), pages 755-769, July.
    4. Hunt Allcott & Matthew Gentzkow, 2017. "Social Media and Fake News in the 2016 Election," Journal of Economic Perspectives, American Economic Association, vol. 31(2), pages 211-236, Spring.
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    Cited by:

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    2. Jari Jussila & Anu Helena Suominen & Atte Partanen & Tapani Honkanen, 2021. "Text Analysis Methods for Misinformation–Related Research on Finnish Language Twitter," Future Internet, MDPI, vol. 13(6), pages 1-16, June.
    3. Lina Zhou & Jie Tao & Dongsong Zhang, 2023. "Does Fake News in Different Languages Tell the Same Story? An Analysis of Multi-level Thematic and Emotional Characteristics of News about COVID-19," Information Systems Frontiers, Springer, vol. 25(2), pages 493-512, April.
    4. Raúl Rodríguez-Ferrándiz & Cande Sánchez-Olmos & Tatiana Hidalgo-Marí & Estela Saquete-Boro, 2021. "Memetics of Deception: Spreading Local Meme Hoaxes during COVID-19 1st Year," Future Internet, MDPI, vol. 13(6), pages 1-19, June.

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