ABSTRACT
“Fake news” is not new to the current political conjuncture, but the political rise of Donald Trump has made the term ubiquitous and raised several issues for the management and realisation of democratic political cultures. Media scholars documented the growth of these forms of parodic or mock journalism. While the term “fake” often appears in those analyses, this content was very different from the notion of fake news as it has come to be understood in the Trump era. Before turning to the latter, let us also acknowledge forms of media content which, though sometimes regarded as “fake news”, are significantly different in their cultural function. Mention of Donald Trump brings us to the core theme of this chapter – the rise of something we now know as “fake news” and its impact on democratic culture. Citizens would henceforth have more access to more sources of politically useful information than at any time in human history.
