Alternative Fakes: The Roles of Belief and Deceptive Intent in the Language of False Information

With 'Fake News' being pointed to as having swayed major political decisions such as the 2016 US Presidential Election and the UK's EU referendum, it is crucial that we gain an understanding of the language used in spreading false information. Belief and Deceptive intent are two things I am especially interested in. A significant issue when looking at the language of 'fake news' is that the author may or may not believe what they are writing and may or may not intend to deceive the reader. Is the writing style of a text written about the flat earth by somebody who believes the earth is flat any different from that of a factual news article? Similarly, is the author of a satirical text that has no intention to deceive the same as a text written knowingly to deceive when neither text contain any factual contents? Modelling fake news as deception is too simplistic as there are many types of false information where the author, in their own mind, is not lying. The research will look at various sources of false information such as flat earth theories, anti-vaccination communities, historical hoaxes, and fraudulent academic work.