After Truth: Disinformation and the Cost of Fake News

Description

The proliferation of disinformation, what may be construed in some circles as what was often called "fake news" (before President Donald Trump hijacked the phrase to describe anything said negatively about him), is discussed, specifically from 2015 to present day, and especially within an American political context. Such disinformation has become more easily spread with technology where almost anybody with a computer, Internet access, and know how can have a platform, more often than not without oversight. The disinformation is usually borne out of a sense of opposition usually by the alt right, and knowledge that what is being perpetrated is indeed not the truth. Methods to spread the disinformation, especially through social media platforms as a start which often then move to specific cable news outlets who "purport" to tell the truth, are discussed, especially in that most of these platforms were designed by their largely young, white, male creators without the aforementioned want ...