Fake News Makes the News: Definitions and Framing of Fake News in Mainstream Media

This paper explores how news media define and frame fake news, thus orienting public perceptions of fake news in terms of problem, causality, responsibilities, and solutions. It first maps the news discourse on fake news through semantic network analysis of 1,646 articles published in 2017–2018 (when the term reached its peak) and 2021–2022. It then analyzes the definitions and frames of fake news in a sample of 122 articles representative of the clusters identified in the previous step of our analysis. The semantic networks in both periods reveal similar dominant actors - political actors, social media platforms and professional journalists–that shape the “fake news” narrative. Fake news is either defined as disinformation and political propaganda or, more often, as false accusations that Donald Trump and his supporters make against mainstream media for their negative reporting. Political and social media actors are mostly held responsible for undermining public trust in mainstream media through fake news dissemination and/or false accusations. In this polarized conception of the public sphere, the public is positioned as a victim rather than an active contributor to the fake news problem and solution.