Library:Social Media and Fake News in the 2016 Election
| Social Media and Fake News in the 2016 Election | |
|---|---|
| Author | Hunt Allcott and Matthew Gentzkow |
| First published | 2017 |
| ISBN | — |
| Role | Analysis |
| Domains | Politics & Elections Technology & Media |
| Tactics | Fabrication |
Social Media and Fake News in the 2016 Election is a 2017 study by Hunt Allcott and Matthew Gentzkow. It appeared in Journal of Economic Perspectives 31, no. 2 (2017).
Summary
Economists Hunt Allcott and Matthew Gentzkow combined web traffic data, a database of fake news stories and an online survey to estimate the reach of fabricated news during the 2016 US presidential campaign.
Findings
They found that fake news stories in their database favored Donald Trump over Hillary Clinton by a wide margin in total shares on Facebook. However, they estimated that the average American adult saw and remembered only around one fake news story, and that social media was an important but not dominant source of election news. They noted that their estimates could not determine whether fake news changed the outcome.
Relevance to Bullshitopedia
An early, careful attempt to measure exposure rather than assume it, useful for keeping claims about fake news's effects in proportion.
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