Writing and Editing for Digital Media, 5th Edition

9 Misinformation and DisinformationCredibility in a “Post-truth” Age

DOI: 10.4324/9781003223849-9

Chapter Objectives

After studying this chapter, you will be able to:

• better understand the threats to the fact-finding, sense-making mission of journalism;
• better sort through the competing claims of fact and fiction;
• understand how credibility in digital media is created, communicated, and maintained;
• consider and evaluate business models of a topsy-turvy industry.

We are, for the first time in modern history, facing the prospect of how societies would exist without reliable news.

—Alan Rusbridger, editor-in-chief at The Guardian newspaper

What if there is literally no profitable model for digital news?

—Chris Hayes, author and MSNBC anchor ...