Abstract
This paper argues that ‘fake news’ is endemic to ‘information society’ as a whole, not just the internet or news media. It is part of daily experience, generated by established patterns of communication, social group categorisation, framing, and patterns of power. These disruptions are intensified though interacting with the dynamics of information capitalism, which values strategic effectiveness more than accuracy. Assuming democratic cosmopolitan society must have good communication, this paper explores the factors which produce obstacles to such communicative processes, as the patterns which support bad communication and disinformation must be understood before they can be dealt with.
Highlights
Assuming democratic cosmopolitan society must have good communication (Hosseini 2013; 2015: 58-59), this paper explores the obstacles to such communicative processes
I do not distinguish between ‘fake news’, ‘lies’, ‘disinformation’, ‘misinformation’ and ‘misunderstanding’, as differentiating between those terms requires understanding the intentions of others, which is fraught
Structural distinction and hierarchy may help organisational efficiency but they create patterns of ignorance which lower that efficiency. While these patterns of disinformation can exist in most complex societies, patterns in information capitalism both extend and intensify these communicative problems, and these patterns can be relatively manipulated by those who find hostility, separation and miscommunication useful
Summary
Assuming democratic cosmopolitan society must have good communication (Hosseini 2013; 2015: 58-59), this paper explores the obstacles to such communicative processes. I argue ‘fake news’ is generally common, but endemic to ‘information society’ as a whole not just to news media. It is part of daily experience, generated by the patterns of communication and magnified by information capitalism. In making this argument, I do not distinguish between ‘fake news’, ‘lies’, ‘disinformation’, ‘misinformation’ and ‘misunderstanding’, as differentiating between those terms requires understanding the intentions of others, which is fraught. The paper necessarily takes a broad span to make its case, it aims to gather some general principles, and make a general argument As such, it summarises work in many fields, being exploratory and suggestive of further research, rather than definitive
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