Fake News, Expertise, and the Neoliberal Transformation of Media Ecosystems

The panel delves into the multifaceted challenges of "fake news" and the erosion of trust in experts, particularly within the context of the 2016 US presidential election and post-Brexit UK. Rob Ferris presents a data-driven analysis of media ecosystems, revealing a landscape of asymmetric polarization where the right-wing media is significantly more fragmented and prone to circulating "political clickbait" and disinformation. He highlights how these nimble digital ecosystems, while not solely responsible, amplify half-truths and outright fantasies, often resisting correction and exhibiting a distinct operational difference between the left and right.

Philip Moravsky offers a precise definition of fake news as intentional fabrication for clicks and revenue, distinguishing it from broader propaganda. He argues that the rise of fake news is a neoliberal innovation, where "intentional befuddlement" becomes an active political strategy, aiming to create confusion and disillusionment rather than direct deception. Moravsky outlines a four-stage process, from the deskilling of journalists to the automation of news curation (algorithms replacing human editors) and advertising placement, culminating in the automation of the audience through political bots. He contends that the neoliberal belief in the market as the validator of truth directly led to the explosion of fake news when human oversight was removed from platforms like Facebook.

Sheila Dow shifts the focus to the complicity of experts, particularly economists, in the crisis of trust. She notes the widespread perception that economists failed to predict the 2008 financial crisis, struggled to explain it, and were seen as supporting austerity policies with dire distributional consequences. Dow critiques the mainstream economic response as a "modernist" adherence to a value-neutral, scientific ideal, which alienates public discourse. She argues that in an environment of extreme postmodernism, where any viewpoint is legitimate, it becomes acceptable to selectively choose experts and facts that support one's own agenda.

The broader implications of these trends are profound, threatening deliberative democracy and fostering a populace that is increasingly docile and disoriented. The panel collectively suggests that the problems are deeply embedded in political and social phenomena, with technology acting as an amplifier rather than the sole cause. To bridge the gap between experts and the public, Dow advocates for a non-dualistic approach in economics, acknowledging the complexity of social science epistemology and embracing alternative logics, such as Keynesian human logic, which accounts for inherent uncertainty, to foster a more nuanced and trustworthy engagement with societal challenges.

"fake news was a term specifically about people who purposely fabricated stories for clicks and revenue. Now it includes bad reporting, slanted journalism, outright propaganda. We are doing a disservice to lump all those things together."

"truth becomes unmoored from argumentation that is as part of a political doctrine truth becomes unmoored from argumentation."

"befuddlement became an active political strategy very different from the top-down broadcast model of early 20th century propaganda."

"propaganda is intentional deception and what I'm going to argue is fake news is not intentional deception it's intentional befuddlement which is not the same thing."

"the market is the validator of truth not people."

"the long tail is to advertising what subprime is to mortgages they have no idea what crap is out there."

"the people have had enough of experts they're consistently getting things wrong."

"if we can't trust expertise as a separate phenomenon then it becomes perfectly legitimate to pick the expertise that supports your own point of view."

"this is the way in which mainstream economics developed that it's a technical subject which doesn't touch on values values are something that come in later on in the policy process."

"epistemology is as applied to social science is far more complicated than something that can be able to be dealt with by classical logic."

"the problems are undoubtedly embedded in political and social phenomena technologies certainly didn't help I think it helped to further this but it works very very differently on the right and on the left."

"this stuff is poison and it needs to be eradicated."