An analysis of fake news and its effects on the economy and society

Daan Heikkinen

MPRA Paper from University Library of Munich, Germany

Abstract: It was once possible to spread untruths and distortions of history and fact in the form of untruths and distortions of history and facts through word of mouth, manuscripts. However, today with the use of modern technology, it is possible to spread fake news to the point that it is affecting the economy and society as a whole. There is no doubt that fake news is impacting the economy inadvertently, but it also has a detrimental effect on people's lives, which makes the phenomenon even more dangerous today. With the advent of digital media, fake news and information of a false or misleading nature has been made more accessible, and this has led to the democratization of false news and misleading information. The advancement of technology, even a few decades ago, made it so difficult to produce something that required a large investment to produce it, whether it was access to printing presses, studios, or internet broadcasting, and now, due to advances in technology, we are able to do it so easily. In recent years, fake news has increased in prevalence, especially with the rise of social media platforms, such as the Facebook News Feed. There is a growing concern about the spread of this misinformation which is gradually affecting mainstream media outlets as well. There have been studies that indicate fake news distribution is strongly linked to a number of factors, including political polarization, post-truth politics, motivated reasoning, confirmation bias, and social media algorithms, among others, that have profound effects on the economy and society in general.

Keywords: Fake news; impact of fake news on economy; fake news and society; fake news and economic sectors (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: D0 E26 F6 F61 F62 O1 P26 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2021-03-12
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-pay
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Published in The Cyber News, Research, and Commentary Journal 2.1(2021): pp. 7-12

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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:pra:mprapa:116027

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