Lecture to Madrid LSE.

1. ‘Fake news’ is good news
Prof Charlie Beckett
@CharlieBeckett
Madrid
June 2017

2. Introduction
• Who am I?
• Who are you?
• Why are you here?

3. Fake news, fake politics?

4. Today’s schedule
• The threat of ‘fake news’ but why it might be
good news for journalism
• The problem for political communications
• The lessons from UK General Election 2017

5. How well do facts travel?

6. How ’truth’ travels badly

7. Tinbergen’s ‘fake news’
• Combination of memorable image, striking
claims, active authors = misreading of facts
• Harvard shop starts selling stickers – even
though there is no evidence of it working –
original disputed experiment was with moving
bird silhouette

10. Why fake news is good news
• Makes mainstream media look good
• Improves ratings and subscriptions
• Forces the social networks to be responsible
• Creates a debate about information & news
• Increases news literacy
• Wake up call to wider set of problems

11. The next phase of online history

13. SaaS (Software as a Service) Era

14. Abundance of sources

15. Abundance of sources = choice?

16. Abundance of sources = specialisation

17. Abundance of sources = lack of trust?

18. Mixed media ecology: legacy, native &
social

19. Blended, personal, emotional

21. SaaS (Software as a Service) Era

22. SaaS (Stories as a Service)
• Connect – be accessible and present on all platforms
• Curate – help users to good content where ever it is
• Be relevant – use users’ language and ‘listen’ creatively
with data
• Be expert – add value, insight, experience, context
• Be truthful – fact checking, balance, accuracy
• Be human – show empathy, diversity, constructive
• Transparency – show sources, be accountable, allow
criticism

24. Public service as ‘subscription’
• Data = listening, but for what purpose?
• Personalisation = relevance, but who decides?
• Follow up/interactivity/notification =
relationship – but what for?
• Deepening/localising = value added, but
whose values?
• Subscription funnel/membership: but what
values shape your strategy?

26. Some further reading:
• Post-truth: a myth created by journalists?
• http://blogs.lse.ac.uk/polis/2017/06/06/post-truth-does-
the-solution-lie-outside-the-newsroom/
• Trust and engagement:
• http://blogs.lse.ac.uk/polis/2017/04/04/trust-and-
engagement-notes-from-the-polis-workshop/
• Fake news is good news for journalism:
• http://blogs.lse.ac.uk/polis/2017/03/11/fake-news-the-
best-thing-thats-happened-to-journalism/
• The role of emotion in journalism:
• http://blogs.lse.ac.uk/polis/2016/09/06/the-role-of-
emotion-in-the-future-of-journalism/

27. Contact me:
Prof Charlie Beckett
Polis, LSE
@CharlieBeckett
c.h.beckett@lse.ac.uk