THE EVOLUTION OF DISINFORMATION: A STUDY OF DIGITAL TRANSFORMATION OF FAKE NEWS

Abstract

Fake news has the power to shape and bias public opinion, spreading across mainstream and online channels. In the Internet era, new technologies enabled both the creation and dissemination of an increasing amount of fake content. Therefore, with the changing landscape of disinformation, the aim of this research is to examine how scientific literature has covered changes in the evolution of fake news and what changes are noticeable following the deep penetration of the Internet and usergenerated content into the general population. Out of 16,093 studied papers listed in EBSCO, Emerald, ProQuest, Science Direct, Scopus, and Web of Science databases, the systematic literature review identified 85 relevant sources related to fake news published in areas of communications, marketing, journalism, psychology, history, and law. The present research provides a comprehensive overview of fake news transformation in the digital age. The occurrence of new forms and types of digital fake news is noticeable. Moreover, the study demonstrates that the way of sharing and disseminating fake news has changed by introducing automated and AI solutions capable of creating and sharing fake content. Further, the term ‘fake news’ has transformed from a single semantic term to a two-dimensional phenomenon, including both the fake news genre and the fake news label. Lastly, the usage of fake news in the novel context as a critical pillar of the info-war strategies has been examined.