A field guide to fake news: recipes for investigating misinformation ecosystems online.
What is the state of fake news in your country? How can misinformation phenomena be investigated? This session will explore how digital methods, data, tools, techniques and research approaches can be utilised in the service of increasing public understanding of the politics, production, circulation and responses to fake news online. In particular it will look at how digital traces from the web and online platforms can be repurposed in the service of public interest research, investigations, data stories and data journalism projects. It will also present several data stories about fake news, as well as offering a behind-the-scenes look at how they were made. The session will include the official launch of a new Field Guide to Fake News from the Public Data Lab and the First Draft Coalition. In the wake of concerns about the role of “fake news” in relation to the US elections, the project aims to catalyse collaborations between leading digital researchers, data journalists and civil society groups in order to map the issue and phenomenon of fake news in US and European politics.
