ABSTRACT
The rise of segmented media, combined with the human tendency to seek out information congenial to our existing views, has created cozy echo chambers, where we are sheltered from contrary perspectives. Fake news is merely a more mendacious version of the heavily spun, sectarian news of segmented media. It is a type of disinformation that "creates the illusion of knowing something but which in fact leads one away from knowing". In the last three months of the US presidential campaign, the most popular fake news stories on Facebook generated more clicks and shares than the top stories from media outlets such as the New York Times, Washington Post, NBC News, so on. More recently, fake news stories often mix xenophobia with bourgeois ideology. In this atmosphere of mendacious demagoguery, xenophobia and racist tropes, educators will be tempted to issue stentorian denunciations in the classroom; but, however satisfying, these are of dubious utility.
