Exploring the Threat of Fake News
Facts, Opinions, and Judgement
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 6338802 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Ilan Zvi Baron (0000-0002-9808-2109, Durham University, corresponding author), Piki Ish-Shalom (0000-0002-7328-955X, Hebrew University of Jerusalem) |
| Year | 2024 |
| Volume | 77 |
| Issue | 2 |
| Pages | 620-632 |
| Publication date | 2024-06-01 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Political Research Quarterly (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 1065-9129 • E-ISSN: 1938-274X |
| Publisher | SAGE Publications Inc (PUBLISHER) |
| DOI | 10.1177/10659129241234839 |
| OpenAlex | W4391946084 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 2 |
| References cited | 43 |
This article explores how fake news, variously described as misinformation, disinformation, malinformation, and post-truth threatens our pluralistic democratic life. We ask, how does fake news function in constructing a world of meaning that destabilises the conditions under which we are able to render valid political judgements in democratic life? Using the 1992 R v Zundel Supreme Court Case from Canada to explore the free speech question, and Hannah Arendt’s distinction between fact and opinion, we argue that fake news uses the malleability of language to displace fact with opinion. This displacement threatens democracy in two ways. First, fake news functions by deploying language in such a way that it is built on refuting its own ability to produce factual knowledge, and in the process the world becomes one of opinion treated axiomatically. Second, as a consequence, it renders judgement impossible because the only information that counts is opinion, whereas judgement corresponds to the public character of factual knowledge. This displacement produces a pseudo-reality where we can imagine that only people like us live here, that is, people who share our own opinions. This is a world that Hannah Arendt and Hans Jonas might characterise as thoughtless
Democracy · Disinformation · Epistemology · Fake news · Judgement · Meaning (existential · Media studies · Misinformation · Political science · Politics · Public opinion · Social media · Sociology · Supreme court · Digital Education and Society · Hate Speech and Cyberbullying Detection · Law · Misinformation and Its Impacts · Philosophy
Post-Truth
A systemic approach to deliberative democracy
Studies in ethnomethodology
The Imperative of Responsibility
Must We Mean What We Say?
Fact-Checking and Truth-Telling in an Age of Alternative Facts
Fake news
Inclusion and Democracy
Democracy for Realists
Computational Propaganda
Echo Chambers and Epistemic Bubbles
Bowling Alone
Defining “Fake News”
On Bullshit
Post-Truth Politics in the UK's Brexit Referendum
Protecting Democracy from Disinformation
The agent's logics of action
Beyond Gatekeeping
Filter Bubbles, Echo Chambers, and Online News Consumption
Truth, Deliberative Democracy, and the Virtues of Accuracy
Disinformation as a Threat to Deliberative Democracy
Populist Gullibility
Social and Cognitive Aspects of the Vulnerability to Political Misinformation
The Stealth Media? Groups and Targets behind Divisive Issue Campaigns on Facebook
Social Media, (Mis)information, and Voting Decisions
Fake Claims of Fake News
Can Democracy Survive the Internet
You Just Don't Understand
Social Media and Fake News in the 2016 Election
Do Facts Matter? Information and Misinformation in American Politics
A Problem-Based Approach to Democratic Theory
Between Facts and Norms
Why Has Critique Run out of Steam? From Matters of Fact to Matters of Concern
| Unique citing works | 2 |
|---|---|
| Citations per year | 2 |
| Citation span | 2025 - 2025 (1) |
| Citation velocity | recent |
| Highly cited | No |
| Citation types | Neutral: 2 |