The phenomenon of misinformation by means of fake online news is an up-to-the-minute topic, important for the field of communication sciences, now more than ever in the spotlight. This article describes the phenomenon of “fake news” and several important concepts in the field such as alternative media, altright media and alt-fact, gatekeeping and gatewatching, post-truth politics and fact-checking, fake news detection and automated deception detection. Starting from the premise that the study of misinformation, manipulation, propaganda and online fake news is even more important when looked at as part of a crisis (understood as a time of turmoil and confusion), we will turn our attention to the crisis affecting people’s trust in the traditional media, as well as to the dangers of overconfidence in the online media, by relying on a case study (the representation of fake news on Romanian online media platforms).
Mădălina-Maria Toma
Author
Toma Mădălina-Maria holds a bachelor’s degree in philology, specialization in Romanian language and literature Spanish language and literature (with a final paper on “Discursive competence and performance through statements belonging to repeated speech”), and a master’s degree in Romanian literature. She has been working as a radio broadcaster for 7 years.