We had a fascinating discussion with Olaf Steenfadt, Director of the Journalism Trust Initiative and Bernard Mossiat, Regional Manager in Europe for the JTI, linked to Reporters Without Borders, on “misinformation”, the term they prefer instead of “fake news”, and how to fight back against it. As Olaf pointed out, they would rather avoid the term “fake news” first because it is opaque and second because it is often weaponised against journalists. I mostly find the anti-fake-news crusade overwhelmingly moralistic, in the sense that there is universal condemnation but little understanding of why the phenomenon is still happening. In other words, once we condemn fake news, we need to develop a working hypothesis on why people lie and how to fight back.
Co-funded by the European Pilot project CALYPSO – Collaborative AnaLYsis, and exPosure of diSinfOrmation, under the CNECT/2020/5464403 programme of the European Union under grant agreement LC-01682258.