By Rich Shumate Imagine opening your morning newspaper (itself a novelty these days) and finding a story about, not just life, but entire civilizations on another planet, attributed to one of the world’s foremost astronomers. Would you believe it, or might you suspect that some “alternative facts” had found their…
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By Austin Vining The federal government recently established a department tasked with identifying truth. Department officials search for errors in news, entertainment, the arts and books and fix them — all according to what they believe to be true. While this scenario plays out in George Orwell’s “Nineteen Eighty-Four,” it’s…
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By Tom Kelleher You would know the difference between a “real” news story and a story written for or by an advertiser, right? Especially when a story is labeled “advertisement” right there at the top of your screen. Even if that label was something murkier like “BrandVoice” and pushed down…
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Tom Kelleher, University of Florida College of Journalism and Communications Advertising Department chair, and Richard Shumate, UFCJC doctoral student and former CNN news editor, have published articles in MediaShift focusing on fake news on May 30 and May 18, respectively. Kelleher is the author of the May 30 article “What…
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“Austin Vining: Ministry of Truth a Looming Danger” was published in The Gainesville Sun on April 27. Vining, a graduate research fellow with the Marion B. Brechner First Amendment Project at the University of Florida College of Journalism and Communications, is a former reporter for The Vicksburg Post. Vining comments…
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By Clay Calvert The aftermath of Donald J. Trump’s stunning victory over Hillary Clinton brought with it much handwringing in news media circles and on social media platforms about the dangers of fake news. Some blame fake news for causing Clinton’s defeat, with the erstwhile candidate herself calling it “an epidemic.” But there’s…
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University of Florida College of Journalism and Communications Marion B. Brechner First Amendment Project Director Clay Calvert’s article, “Fake News, Censorship & the Third-Person Effect: You Can’t Fool Me, Only Others!” was published in The Huffington Post on Feb. 16. Calvert claims there is a major paradox when it comes…
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