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Response to Jeroen de Ridder’s 'So What if 'Fake News' is Fake News?'
Citation
Coady, D, Response to Jeroen de Ridder's 'So What if 'Fake News' is Fake News?', Social Epistemology Review and Reply Collective, 8, (12) pp. 25-28. ISSN 2471-9560 (2019) [Non Refereed Article]
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Abstract
It is tempting to accept the studies de Ridder (2019) cites in support of my position that the
fake news scare has been "overhyped". However, since I have argued there is no fake news
problem at all, I cannot accept studies according to which there is such a problem, albeit one
that it is not as bad as is commonly supposed. It is true that I am opposed to overhyping the
problem of fake news, but it is a misleading truth, because it doesn’t go far enough.1 For
precisely the same reason, it is true, but highly misleading, to say that the witch problem in
medieval Europe was overhyped. It was overhyped, not because it was only a minor
problem, but because it was not a problem at all. Now, as then, the real problem was not the
alleged phenomenon ("witches" or "fake news"), but widespread hysteria, and consequent
repressive measures, over a non-existent problem. It’s true that Pope Alexander VI
overhyped the witch problem, but any hype at all would have been overhype.
Item Details
Item Type: | Non Refereed Article |
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Keywords: | fake news, conspiracy theories, post-truth, media |
Research Division: | Human Society |
Research Group: | Political science |
Research Field: | Political theory and political philosophy |
Objective Division: | Expanding Knowledge |
Objective Group: | Expanding knowledge |
Objective Field: | Expanding knowledge in philosophy and religious studies |
UTAS Author: | Coady, D (Dr David Coady) |
ID Code: | 139167 |
Year Published: | 2019 |
Deposited By: | Office of the School of Humanities |
Deposited On: | 2020-05-28 |
Last Modified: | 2020-06-30 |
Downloads: | 0 |
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