Third International Conference on Communication & Media Studies

Abstract

Fake news may be defined as spreading misinformation or proliferating slanderous propaganda with treacherous consequences. Fake news is dominating the field of social media journalism in twenty-first century. India’s social media penetration has witnessed a major increase over the past five years. In the context of digital revolution, issues are majorly transforming societies and fake news is a dark side of it. The social society grapples to recognise between post-truth and truth. This study analyses the perilous effect of social media fake news on Indian societies from survey data of an online sample. It looks into how most Indians believe fake news impacts society. Results reveal that majority of Indians believe fabricated news creates confusion and say that most political stories followed by social narrative are made up and shared as truth. The study shows the blueprint of online platforms are indispensable to fake news with facebook being the most susceptible and then Whatsapp. It concludes that fake news has resulted in numerous hazardous effects shepherd by lynching and followed up by polarisation. Social media platforms must bear their fair share of responsibility, solitary initiatives will prove to be futile and likely to fall short while a collective effort within the public domain, social platforms, and initiatives from government can help combat fake news.