“Fake news isn’t new,” said Cornell Clayton, a political science professor at Washington State University. “It often accompanies populist revival eras in politics. These things go hand in hand.”
Clayton, who directs WSU’s Thomas S. Foley Institute of Public Policy and Public Service, said fake news explodes in popularity in times of political polarization and distrust of “the establishment” – mainstream media included.
Stopping the spread of fake news and conspiracy theories is a unique challenge in the digital age. And it’s difficult to measure how bad information influences democratic processes like a presidential election.