Is “Letting the Truth Get in the Way of a Good Story” Enough? Journalists’ Perception on Fake News

Abstract

While numerous scholars have studied the role media has in the fake news phenomenon, journalists’ perception on disinformation has been insufficiently approached, and only from a US and West-European point of view. Based on interviews with eight traditional media and new media professionals, this study seeks to add to the understanding of the way journalists from an East-European country see fake news in an environment influenced by time pressure and external immixture in the media. The findings show that even though all interviewed journalists place great value on fact-checking, they happened to publish information that later was demonstrated to not be trustworthy. While journalists perceive disinformation in a deeply negative manner, many of the things that add to the spread of fake news cannot be controlled by journalists as a part.