Fake news in the digital environment: a marketing phenomenon of populist narratives on social networks

Abstract

This work aims to contribute to studies on fake news and disinformation in the digital age. With the advancement of technological devices and the communication changes resulting from the post-industrial era, the way of obtaining information in digital spaces becomes fluid and compromising. We experience the knowledge society that opens the way for the production, dissemination and sharing of content on social networks, impacting the lives and daily lives of the people who make up a society. Our research aims to identify and classify how fake news appears in digital spaces and how they contribute to the growth of conservative populist narratives. The study is important because we understand that the information society is shaped by the circulation of narratives on a digital network, and because they contribute to social perception in the democratic environment. Our article goes through a methodology of content analysis and data collection on the social network Twitter. For this, we used the qualitative and quantitative procedure in order to identify and classify the information obtained. From the identification and classification of fake news on the social network, we present three predominant groups: decontextualized information, fragmented information and manipulated information. The architecture composed of these elements in social networks contributes to the perception of a society that misinforms. Preliminary results indicate that despite the policies developed by digital platforms prevent misleading narratives or even that propagate hate speech on social networks, this phenomenon occurs because of the capitalist information industry.