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Scientific article
OA Policy
English

‘Fake news' as infrastructural uncanny

Contributors

Gray, Jonathan; Bounegru, Liliana; Venturini, Tommaso

Published in

New media & society, vol. 22, no. 2, p. 317-341

Publication date

2020-01-20

First online date

2020-01-20

Abstract

In this article, we examine how the social disturbance precipitated by ‘fake news' can be viewed as a kind of infrastructural uncanny. We suggest that the threat of problematic and viral junk news can raise existential questions about the routine circulation, engagement and monetisation of content through the Web and social media. Prompted by the unsettling effects associated with the ‘fake news' scandal, we propose methodological tactics for exploring (1) the link economy and the ranking of content, (2) the like economy and the metrification of engagement and (3) the tracker economy and the commodification of attention. Rather than focusing on the misleading content of junk news, such tactics surface the infrastructural conditions of their circulation, enabling public interventions and experiments to interrogate, challenge and change their role in reconfiguring relations between different aspects of social, cultural, economic and political life.

UNIGE affiliation entities

Citation (ISO format)

GRAY, Jonathan, BOUNEGRU, Liliana, VENTURINI, Tommaso. ‘Fake news” as infrastructural uncanny. In: New media & society, 2020, vol. 22, n° 2, p. 317–341. doi: 10.1177/1461444819856912

Main files (1)

Article (Published version)
CC BY

Identifiers

Additional URL for this publication

http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/1461444819856912

Journal ISSN

1461-4448
194views
240downloads

Technical informations

Creation

15/12/2021 16:44:00

First validation

15/12/2021 16:44:00

Update

02/10/2024 09:18:16

Status update

02/10/2024 09:18:16

Last indexation

18/01/2025 14:06:41
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