Pragmatics Reading Group - Eliot Michaelson (KCL)

"What Fake News is, and Why that Matters"  (note: this is joint work with Jessica Pepp and Rachel Sterken)

Abstract:  A number of theorists have recently offered characterizations of what fake news is. Most of these appeal, one way or another, to the intentions of the agent(s) generating the story in order to classify these stories as fake news. We argue that this line of thought, however it is spelled out, is ultimately unappealing. The basic problem is that it rules out the possibility of their being machine-generated fake news---which is either soon to be or, more likely, already a part of the reality we live in. We offer an alternative analysis of fake news according to which fake news is news which is both widely shared and which fails to live up to journalistic standards. This analysis makes evident the importance of the notion of 'sharing' in our present communicative environment. We therefore supplement our analysis of fake news with a preliminary analysis of sharing and lay out some further avenues of development on this front. Finally, this package of views helps to highlight what has changed so radically in the last decade or so about fake news---the infrastructure of sharing has come to be owned by social media companies---which in turn suggests a range of potential remedies to our present situation.

The talk will take place online on Zoom - a link will be sent out nearer the time.

For further information and future updates on the seminars, go to the Pragmatics Reading Group web page: https://www.ucl.ac.uk/pals/research/linguistics/linguistics-events/pragmatics-reading-group