Fake News: Implications for Management, Organization, and Society

Abstract

This symposium on fake news seeks to encourage research about a burgeoning phenomenon that poses significant implications for the management domain. Fake news has been defined as “fabricated information that mimics news media content in form but not in organizational process or intent”. It “overlaps with other information disorders, such as misinformation (false or misleading information) and disinformation (false information that is purposely spread to deceive people)” (Lazer et al., 2018: 1094). Although fake news has received attention due to its effect on politics and particularly the 2016 US Presidential election, its potential effects on business have only recently received attention from scholars in communications, information systems, and marketing. Therefore, this panel symposium’s purpose of is to engage a group of scholars in an informal, moderated, interactive discussion to (1) encourage research on the fake news phenomenon, (2) explore the potential effects of fake news on corporate reputations, businesses, and competition, (3) share methods (experiments, GPT-3 use) and findings (agendamelding, conspiracism) from the communications and journalism fields, and (4) discuss how we establish the impact of fake news on business through academic research.