ABSTRACT
This chapter argues mainstream news coverage critical of "fake news" during and after the 2016 United States presidential election focused on how audiences, the marketplace and technology, and Donald Trump fueled the genre while celebrating the role of professional journalists to investigate and uncover "untruths." It examines how journalists in the United States and the United Kingdom explained the rise and meanings of "fake news" as a threat to mainstream journalistic authority. The chapter discusses how journalists explained the role of truth in discussions of "fake news." In a fragmented news world, increased threat to journalistic authority in the rise of "fake news," websites designed to make money from increased web traffic by publishing information ranging from satire to outright lies, provides not only financial competition but also dangers to democracy. The chapter reveales tension among journalists to assess relationships between news media and social media, which has come to dominate how some users access fake and real news.
