Fake news has some benefits for journalism according to the document. It makes mainstream media look better in comparison and improves their ratings and subscriptions. It also forces social networks to take more responsibility for the information shared on their platforms. While fake news is a problem, it has started important debates about how information and news are handled online and has increased news literacy. It has served as a wake up call to wider issues around online information.

1. ‘Fake news’ is good news for
journalism
Prof Charlie Beckett
@CharlieBeckett
May 2017

2. How well do facts travel?

3. How ’truth’ travels badly

4. 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

7. 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

8. The next phase of online history

10. SaaS (Software as a Service) Era

11. Abundance of sources

12. Abundance of sources = choice?

13. Abundance of sources = specialisation

14. Abundance of sources = lack of trust?

15. Mixed media ecology: legacy, native &
social

16. Blended, personal, emotional

18. SaaS (Software as a Service) Era

19. 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

21. 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?

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