Misinformation, disinformation, and fake news: lessons from an interdisciplinary, systematic literature review

Abstract

Even though misinformation, disinformation, and fake news are not new phenomena, they have received renewed interest since political events such as Brexit and the 2016 U.S. Presidential elections. The resulting sharp increase in scholarly publications bears the risk of lack of overview, fragmentation across disciplines, and ultimately a lack of research cumulativity. To counteract these risks, we have performed a systematic research review of 1261 journal articles published between 2010 and 2021. Results show the field is mostly data-driven, frequently investigating the prevalence, dissemination, detection or characteristics of misinformation, disinformation, and fake news. There further are clear foci concerning contributing disciplines, methodologies, and data usage. Building on our results, we identify several research gaps and suggest avenues for future research.