ABSTRACT
This chapter describes the rise of the phenomenon of fake news as akin to a 'global panic', so fierce and ubiquitous has been the debate as to its consequences and implications. Fake news can have immediate short-term impacts, illustrated by the case of Edgar Maddison Welch, sentenced to four years in prison for entering the Comet restaurant in Washington armed to the teeth and on the hunt for pro-Clinton paedophiles. Media studies remain the subject of frequent disdain from many in the professional media and political spheres, but now is a time when digital media literacy becomes an important support of democratic political cultures, empowering individuals to play a proactive role in assessing the status of the information they access online. A preferable approach is to put pressure on media organisations themselves to improve and strengthen their fact-checking processes.
