Trends and Predictions for 2017

Fake news is not new but as Mark Thompson points out in his new book Enough Said,10 “our digital eco-systems have evolved into a near perfect environment for distorted and false news to thrive”. In the last weeks of the US election, according to an analysis by Buzzfeed News, fake stories such as the Pope endorsing Donald Trump and Hilary Clinton selling weapons to ISIS outperformed real news on Facebook with more shares, reactions and comments.

There is a danger of exaggerating the extent of fake news. Mark Zuckerberg argues that it amounts to less that 1% of what people actually see in their newsfeed, but the election has made a long-standing issue around fake and misleading content much more apparent. This matters because our Reuters Institute research shows that in almost all countries more people now rely on social media as a source of news than printed newspapers. More than one in ten (12%) now consider social media as their main source of news and around a quarter of adults under the age of 25.But solving these problems is going to be complicated by a diffi culty in defi ning fake news in an era of increased partisanship and polarisation – not least with the next president of the United States himself an enthusiastic practitioner and sharer of fake news. So will Facebook, as the largest social network, recognise and face up to its new editorial power? How might publishers respond to these trends in the year to come?

This may be wishful thinking with others pointing out that the discussion of fake news may further harm the public’s trust in media or cause people to turn away from news altogether. This is clearly a turning point for media and all eyes will be on how both publishers and platforms respond to this crisis of credibility.