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How “Fake News” Lost Its Meaning
Anthropology News (2018)
  • Adam Hodges, Carnegie Mellon University
Abstract
Collins Dictionary named fake news its 2017 word of the year, an easy choice given the word’s “unprecedented usage increase” of 365 percent over the previous year. Collins defines fake news as “false, often sensational, information disseminated under the guise of news.” But this dictionary definition belies the shifting usage of the word in actual contexts of situation since the 2016 election.
Keywords
  • fake news,
  • propaganda,
  • ideology,
  • truth,
  • mass media,
  • democracy,
  • Donald Trump,
  • indexicality,
  • meaning,
  • Twitter
Publication Date
June 6, 2018
DOI
10.1111/AN.880
Publisher Statement
Copyright 2018 American Anthropological Association
Citation Information
Adam Hodges. "How “Fake News” Lost Its Meaning" Anthropology News (2018)
Available at: http://works.bepress.com/adamhodges/89/