Spreadable Spectacle in Digital Culture: Civic Expression, Fake News, and the Role of Media Literacies in “Post-Fact” Society by Paul Mihailidis and Samantha Viotty

​This article is solely based around the 2016 US presidential election and the effect media had on this. It explores the idea of spreadable media and how there is a need for more critical views on mainstream media, in order to combat the generation of fake news and miscommunication. It also investigates how the use of online communication such as social media fuelled the spread of miscommunication.  The author has authority to write on this particular topic as Mihailidis has been author to 82 articles on varying aspects of media. His co-author is also experienced in the subject holding a Master of Arts in Civic Media and is an assistant professor in the school of communication at Emerson College, Boston. This article is aimed at those who have an interest in politics, intending to make them aware of how the media make use of fake news and the effect this had during the 2016 US presidential election. One of the key themes that this article focuses’ on is the role of media literacies in post-fact society. We live in a society where the story is more important than the facts and so this leads to articles being published without a sense of truth. This is stemmed by the economic impact of having an exclusive piece of news and being the first to publish this. Another key theme discussed in this piece is the digital age; online communities of like-minded people that can create and sustain a media spectacle with little support from mainstream media. Mainly consist of the younger generations, who have been brought up to know nothing else than using digital media to communicate. This article investigates deeper to the routes of miscommunication by the media than any articles before it and provides an in-depth insight into the effect this had on the 2016 US election.

Other Articles:
This piece aims to define what fake news is, its origin and how we can identify it. 
www.telegraph.co.uk/technology/0/fake-news-exactly-has-really-had-influence/

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This looks at the effect of fake news on Social media and how sites are taking action to reduce fake news articles without removing the right to free speech.

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This TedxTeen talk addresses why we should care about Social media, the effect it has and how social media and mobile phones disseminate spread fake news more readily. 

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​i.pinimg.com/originals/aa/6f/23/aa6f23e3e126dd2d6d3752c4250185df.pngi.pinimg.com/originals/aa/6f/23/aa6f23e3e126dd2d6d3752c4250185df.pngKey Definitions –

1. Spreadable media – The wide distribution of media through the use of a range of platforms, eg. social media. This is key to this article as it discusses how spreadable fake news is due to social media. 
2. Fake News- is false information disseminated under the false appearance of news reporting. This is important to this text as it gives context to the discussion of why it has become so important.
3. Memes- an image, video, piece of text, etc., typically humorous in nature, that is copied and spread rapidly by Internet users, often with slight variations. Memes are a method used to spread fake news over social media as they are popular content on social platforms. 

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Practice based Solutions ​

1. Select three focus groups and provide one group with all true information, another with all fake news and one with a mix of both. The ask the members of each group to pick out the fake news from the articles they have been given. The examine how their judgment of news is affected once they learnt the truth behind the experiment and the fake news stories have been identified.