Abstract
Combating the spread of fake news remains a difficult problem. For this reason, it is increasingly urgent to understand the phenomenon of fake news. This review aims to see why fake news is widely shared on social media and why some people believe it. The presentation of its structure (from the images chosen, the format of the titles and the language used in the text) can explain the reasons for going viral and what factors are associated with the belief in fake news. We show that fake news explores all possible aspects to attract the reader’s attention, from the formation of the title to the language used throughout the body of the text. The proliferation and success of fake news are associated with its characteristics (more surreal, exaggerated, impressive, emotional, persuasive, clickbait, shocking images), which seem to be strategically thought out and exploited by the creators of fake news. This review shows that fake news continues to be widely shared and consumed because that is the main objective of its creators. Although some studies do not support these correlations, it appears that conservatives, right-wing people, the elderly and less educated people are more likely to believe and spread fake news.
Highlights
IntroductionThe way we access news articles and how we generally consume information online has changed
The way we access news articles and how we generally consume information online has changed.Social media has become the main vehicle for accessing news
The latest studies on fake news seem to indicate that fake news and disinformation websites reach a small sample of the population, compared to the reach of real news and the traffic generated by credible news websites
Summary
The way we access news articles and how we generally consume information online has changed. Social media has become the main vehicle for accessing news. Recent studies show that Facebook is one of the preferred sources of access to news, especially for the younger generation (Newman et al 2019). Facebook and Twitter are responsible for the proliferation of fake news in the digital universe, increasing its exposure through the creation of segregated groups or recommendation algorithms (Zimmer et al 2019a, 2019b). In addition to being important to understand the digital mechanisms that promote the proliferation of fake news, it is crucial to understand the role the structure (subject, title, body text) plays in its rapid dissemination and what motivates readers to consume and share it. If on the one hand, efforts are joined in the search for technological programs that allow the identification and detection of fake news (Burkhardt 2017b; Hardalov et al 2016), on the other hand, others seek to raise the awareness of social media users and decrease the circulation of lies through a bet on the automation of fact-checking (Graves 2018; McClure 2017; Nguyen et al 2019)
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