Malmö University Publications
Change search
CiteExportLink to record
Permanent link

Direct link
Cite
Citation style
  • apa
  • ieee
  • modern-language-association-8th-edition
  • vancouver
  • Other style
More styles
Language
  • de-DE
  • en-GB
  • en-US
  • fi-FI
  • nn-NO
  • nn-NB
  • sv-SE
  • Other locale
More languages
Output format
  • html
  • text
  • asciidoc
  • rtf
Fake News in Metajournalistic Discourse
Malmö University, Faculty of Culture and Society (KS), School of Arts and Communication (K3).ORCID iD: 0000-0003-2272-7174
2023 (English)In: Journalism Studies, ISSN 1461-670X, E-ISSN 1469-9699, Vol. 24, no 4, p. 423-441Article in journal (Refereed) Published
Abstract [en]

In recent years, fake news has become central to debates about the state and future of journalism. This article examines imaginaries around fake news as a threat to democracy and the role of journalism in mitigating this threat. The study builds on 34 qualitative interviews with Danish journalists, media experts, government officials, and social media company representatives as well as 42 editorials from nine national Danish news outlets. Drawing on discourse theory and the concept of metajournalistic discourse, the analysis finds that media actors mobilise fake news to support opposing discursive positions on journalism and its relationship with falsehoods. While some voices articulate established journalism and journalistic values, such as objectivity, as the antithesis to fake news, others blame contemporary journalistic practices for potentially contributing to misinformation, calling for change and reform. These contrasts are particularly notable between the public stances of editors-in-chief, expressed through editorials, and reflections based on personal experience from news reporters and media experts. The paper concludes that fake news functions as a floating signifier in Danish metajournalistic discourse, mobilised not only to attack or defend journalism, but also to present conflicting visions for what journalism is and ought to be.

Place, publisher, year, edition, pages
New York: Taylor & Francis, 2023. Vol. 24, no 4, p. 423-441
Keywords [en]
Fake news, disinformation, misinformation, journalism, metajournalistic discourse, journalistic values, discourse theory, discourse analysis, Denmark
National Category
Media and Communication Studies
Identifiers
URN: urn:nbn:se:mau:diva-58028DOI: 10.1080/1461670X.2023.2167106ISI: 000926161800001Scopus ID: 2-s2.0-85147705286OAI: oai:DiVA.org:mau-58028DiVA, id: diva2:1734048
Available from: 2023-02-04 Created: 2023-02-04 Last updated: 2025-02-11Bibliographically approved
In thesis
1. This Is Not Real News: Discursive Struggles over Fake News, Journalism, and Democracy
Open this publication in new window or tab >>This Is Not Real News: Discursive Struggles over Fake News, Journalism, and Democracy
2023 (English)Doctoral thesis, comprehensive summary (Other academic)
Abstract [en]

Fake news has attracted significant global attention and contestation in recent years. This PhD thesis explores the explosive and oftentimes contradictory rise of fake news and dives into the discursive struggles around journalism, politics, digital media, and liberal democracy that have emerged in its wake. Through a series of interrelated publications – spanning more than five years of research – the thesis examines how and with what consequences journalistic and political actors articulate and dispute the very meaning of fake news. Through a careful and critical mapping of the discursive signification of fake news, the thesis does not only situate the issue in wider political and historical contexts; it also draws out and reflects upon its implications for the future of liberal democracies. 

Deploying detailed empirical investigations based on news content, textual analysis, and qualitative interviews, the thesis sheds light on discursive struggles around fake news within a number of distinct socio-political contexts. It dives into cases from the US and UK, where fake news first rose to prominence in 2016, as well as from Denmark, where fake news has increasingly become a topic of journalistic and political concern. 

Drawing on the ontological and conceptual framework of discourse theory, the thesis demonstrates how fake news has come to function as a floating signifier; it is a deeply political concept mobilised within conflicting hegemonic projects with fundamentally different forms of meaning. Having done so, the thesis goes on to show that fake news has not only become central in debates around lies and falsehoods but also for conflicting visions about what ‘politics,’ ‘journalism,’ and ‘liberal democracy’ fundamentally are and ought to be. Indeed, the core argument levelled in this thesis is that fake news has come to function as a prism through which wider struggles over liberal democracy and human co-habitation have become visible at a time of growing political instability. 

Taken together, the findings offered by the thesis contribute to the field of media and communication studies by addressing a pertinent gap regarding the discursive signification of fake news. Connecting the rise of fake news to structural transformations at the heart of both contemporary media landscapes and liberal democracy, the thesis moves beyond formalistic conceptions of fake news and into the highly conflictual terrain surrounding the concept.

Place, publisher, year, edition, pages
Malmö: Malmö University Press, 2023. p. 223
Series
School of Arts and Communication Dissertation Series ; 8
Keywords
Fake news, disinformation, misinformation, journalism, democracy, digital media, discourse theory, metajournalistic discourse
National Category
Media and Communications
Identifiers
urn:nbn:se:mau:diva-58996 (URN)10.24834/isbn.9789178773169 (DOI)978-91-7877-315-2 (ISBN)978-91-7877-316-9 (ISBN)
Public defence
2023-06-02, Auditorium C, Nordenskiöldsgatan 1, 211 19, Malmö, Sweden, Malmö, 09:34 (English)
Opponent
Supervisors
Available from: 2023-04-11 Created: 2023-03-30 Last updated: 2025-02-07Bibliographically approved

Open Access in DiVA

fulltext(1735 kB)296 downloads
File information
File name FULLTEXT01.pdfFile size 1735 kBChecksum SHA-512
f9d4b93f3f4d9182d1c489e12738bea2fc9705a617f2f963a57d36da74b79c8edf8a380e861e61b71a22da81b2a38dc631b915bf81ac80b304c5e30d1973bdf2
Type fulltextMimetype application/pdf

Other links

Publisher's full textScopus

Authority records

Farkas, Johan

Search in DiVA

By author/editor
Farkas, Johan
By organisation
School of Arts and Communication (K3)
In the same journal
Journalism Studies
Media and Communication Studies

Search outside of DiVA

GoogleGoogle Scholar
Total: 296 downloads
The number of downloads is the sum of all downloads of full texts. It may include eg previous versions that are now no longer available

doi
urn-nbn

Altmetric score

doi
urn-nbn
Total: 300 hits
CiteExportLink to record
Permanent link

Direct link
Cite
Citation style
  • apa
  • ieee
  • modern-language-association-8th-edition
  • vancouver
  • Other style
More styles
Language
  • de-DE
  • en-GB
  • en-US
  • fi-FI
  • nn-NO
  • nn-NB
  • sv-SE
  • Other locale
More languages
Output format
  • html
  • text
  • asciidoc
  • rtf