Misinformation and Mass Audiences

Ever since the 2016 U.S. presidential election, the term “fake news” has become seemingly inescapable. Because the term lacks a consensus definition, it increasingly operates as a stand-in for whatever someone finds most alarming within today’s news media environment. It’s been used on Twitter by politicians to denounce credible yet embarrassing news stories, and by wary journalists to refer to serial news fabricators. Complicating matters further is the fact that concern about fake news currently outweighs empirical research into both its production and impact. Consequently, it’s a term that provokes alarm and confusion, making it one in dire need of a comprehensive review. That is a long way of saying that Misinformation and Mass Audiences could not have come along at a better time. The book, edited by Brian G. Southwell, Emily A. Thorson, and Laura Sheble, offers a wide variety of perspectives on fake news from a thoughtfully assembled, interdisciplinary group of scholars. These disciplines include communication research, public health, psychology, political science, environmental studies, and information science. Considering the gulf between how little we know about the causes and effects of fake news and the seemingly universal panic over its influence on everything from journalism to democracy, it is enormously helpful to have these insights from a variety of backgrounds and methodologies collected into a single volume. There are a number of other smart decisions the editors of and authors within this collection have made: first, as is apparent by its title, the term “fake news” rarely appears at all. In its place is “misinformation.” This may seem like an inconsequential distinction (and who knows, maybe it wasn’t even intentional), but it isn’t. Forgoing the more fashionable term for the more timeless “misinformation” allows