A systematic review on fake news research through the lens of news creation and consumption: Research efforts, challenges, and future directions

Abstract

Background Although fake news creation and consumption are mutually related and can be changed to one another, our review indicates that a significant amount of research has primarily focused on news creation. To mitigate this research gap, we present a comprehensive survey of fake news research, conducted in the fields of computer and social sciences, through the lens of news creation and consumption with internal and external factors. Methods We collect 2,277 fake news-related literature searching six primary publishers (ACM, IEEE, arXiv, APA, ELSEVIER, and Wiley) from July to September 2020. These articles are screened according to specific inclusion criteria (see Fig 1). Eligible literature are categorized, and temporal trends of fake news research are examined. Results As a way to acquire more comprehensive understandings of fake news and identify effective countermeasures, our review suggests (1) developing a computational model that considers the characteristics of news consumption environments leveraging insights from social science, (2) understanding the diversity of news consumers through mental models, and (3) increasing consumers’ awareness of the characteristics and impacts of fake news through the support of transparent information access and education. Conclusion We discuss the importance and direction of supporting one’s “digital media literacy” in various news generation and consumption environments through the convergence of computational and social science research.

Fake news: Why do we believe it?

“…Research into fake news has progressed exponentially in the last 5 years ( Box 1 ) [4] , [5] , [6] , [7] . Hence, this update addresses only a part of the fake news-related issues and focuses on the reasons leading individuals to believe fake news, noting that rheumatology is scarcely represented.…”

“…This update considers successively the external determinants of people's beliefs linked to the media ecosystem and social media platforms ( Box 2 ) and the internal cognitive and psychological determinants as well as mixed sociological factors ( Table 1 ). These latter factors in turn feed the fake news ecosystem in that people may change from consumers to creators of fake news and vice versa [4] .

External factors: ecosystem of media and social media platforms.

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Fake News Detection Techniques on Social Media: A Survey

“…Several sophisticated approaches have recently been shown, including the ability to edit video recordings of renowned persons [22], create high-quality films [43], and other skills. As a consequence, distinguishing true from false visual information becomes much more difficult and critical, and more complex visual-based criteria are required for this study to be successful [44]. We added user-based, postbased, and network-based components to the system from the perspective of the social context.…”

Young People as Empirical Experts of Participatory Research in the Age of Information Disorders

“…Fake news has been widely discussed publicly and in academic settings as one of the most serious challenges in today's information landscape (Damstra et al, 2021;Kim et al, 2021). However, it has been argued that the term 'fake news' does not sufficiently capture the complexity of current information pollution, and some authors have proposed the terms as 'information disorder' or 'information crisis' to characterise the situation (LSE Truth, Trust and Technology Commission, 2018;Wardle & Derakhshan, 2017).…”