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## Meet the editors

Ján Višňovský is an associate professor at the Faculty of Mass Media Communication, the University of Ss. Cyril and Methodius, Trnava, Slovak Republic, and head of the Department of Mass Media Communication. He is particularly interested in problems and questions of journalism in the context of the development of information and communication technologies and the history of television. He has published more than eighty

scholarly articles and conference papers. Of them, twenty-five are indexed in Web of Science or Scopus. He is a member of the editorial board of the scientific journal Communication Today, and a member of Slovak Syndicate of Journalists, International Federation of Journalists, European Association for Viewers Interests and International Association for Media Education.

Jana Radošinská is an associate professor at the Faculty of Mass Media Communication, the University of Ss. Cyril and Methodius, Trnava, Slovak Republic. Her scientific and research specialization is based on a critical analysis of media culture. She is interested in mainstream filmmaking, media industries, the terminological axis of media and communication studies, problems of the culture and entertainment industry, as well as

in the perspectives of understanding and researching media audiences and digital games. She has authored or co-authored five monographs. The thematic focus of all five publications leads to critical reflections on the ideological, value-related and economic aspects of so-called media culture. Radošinská is also the deputy editor-in-chief of the scholarly journal *Communication Today*.

Contents

**Section 1**

Reality

*by Ján Višňovský and Jana Radošinská*

*by Thomas J. Froehlich*

*by Shestakova Eleonora*

with Three Unknowns? *by Elena Danescu*

*by Sulaiman A. Osho*

*by Dumebi Otulugbu*

as Basis of Fourth Estate of the Realm

of Personalities on Internet Meme Behavior

*by Jon-Chao Hong, Ming-Yueh Hwang and Kai-Hsin Tai*

**Preface XI**

and Disinformation **1**

**Chapter 1 3**

**Chapter 2 13**

**Chapter 3 59**

**Chapter 4 79** Lightweight and Simplified Truth as a Kind of Distortion of Social-Everyday

**Chapter 5 99** Democracy, Freedom and Truth at a Time of Digital Disruption: An Equation

**Chapter 6 127**

**Chapter 7 145** Alternative News and Misinterpretations: Fake News and Its Spread in Nigeria

**Chapter 8 155**

The Replication and Spread of Functional Food Messages: The Influence

Fake News as Aberration in Journalism Practice: Examining Truth and Facts

Theoretical and Empirical Outlines of Understanding Fake News

A Disinformation-Misinformation Ecology: The Case of Trump

Debunking as a Method of Uncovering Disinformation and Fake News *by Zuzana Kvetanová, Anna Kačincová Predmerská and Magdaléna Švecová*

Introductory Chapter: Journalism Facing Both Pandemic and 'Infodemic'

## Contents



Preface

To us, this book, *Fake News Is Bad News – Hoaxes, Half-truths and the Nature of Today's Journalism*, is unique for multiple reasons. First, its challenging main purpose—to offer an interdisciplinary body of scholarly knowledge on fake news, disinformation and propaganda in relation to today's journalism, social development, political situation and cultural affairs happening all around the world—has become even more difficult to fulfill over the last twelve months, which can be defined as 'the year the Earth stood still' (let us hope that it is actually appropriate to use this widely known popular culture reference). Second, COVID-19 has made us much more careful, a bit more empathetic and maybe even somewhat more pessimistic regarding today's journalism and its pitfalls. Third, while offering our feedback to the authors contributing to this publication, we found it quite interesting and maybe even intriguing to see that whenever we come from and whatever we want to discuss in relation to contemporary journalism, there is one focal point that unites us all: the essential idea of quality journalism, with everything it should provide, now confronted with the omnipresence of fake news, disinformation, conspiracies and other public communication deficiencies that may threaten the ways we live our lives,

influence what we think or make us act in an inappropriate manner.

development impossible.

Regardless, even during the pandemic we still live in the era of the digital revolution, which is characterized by easy access to obtaining, processing and disseminating information on a global scale. These global digital spaces transformed the world of communication years ago. The given shift in our understanding of what we should be informed about, when and how, manifests itself not only within mature liberal democracies, which grant their citizens and the media constitutionally guaranteed freedom of speech and rights associated with obtaining information, but also within developing countries with different types of political establishments. Moreover, many media producers, especially journalists and persons claiming to be journalists, abuse their crucial mission and, instead, foster a set of serious communication flaws that, in fact, threaten basic human rights and freedoms, weaken them or make their

The publication is focused on the ways fake news, disinformation, misinformation and hateful statements are spread across society, predominantly via the online environment. It offers an interdisciplinary body of scholarly knowledge on fake news, disinformation and propaganda in relation to today's journalism, social development, political situation and cultural affairs. The book is divided into two sections that outline the thematic differences between the individual chapters. The first section, which over eight chapters offers a collection of interdisciplinary reflections on understanding fake news and disinformation, includes theoretical as well as empirical knowledge. The second section, consisting of five chapters,

As our introductory chapter outlines the discussed topics in light of the contemporary trends in journalism, its aim is to identify which aspects of journalistic practice have changed lately, and why. The main line of thought follows global as well as national

focuses on the regional and local contexts of the issue in question.
