Introduction: media and fakery

Abstract

This special issue addresses notions of fakery in our contemporary media environment, from fake news to the deepfake. While all media contains elements of creative fabrication, we define ‘media fakery’ as an attempt to conceal the origins of information that must contain a degree of human intentionality to be considered ‘fake’. Fakery is no longer limited to news media or any particular mode of communication; as tools for manipulating digital content are more readily available to all, the reach of fakery in media is increasingly broad. The essays in the special issue address varying definitions of ‘fakery’ in different forms of media production and consumption. They interrogate both the authentic and the fake and expand dichotomous understandings of media fakery as either ‘good’ or ‘bad’.