Why fake news sells better than traditional news

Lots of media colleagues have been arguing that fake news helped Trump win the election. But  they are confusing the symptom with the disease.

The rise of fake news has more to do with the declining relevance of traditional news media, both as businesses (Google and Facebook have taken all their advertising revenue) and as credible sources of information.

Media types like me (my paid subscriptions: New York Times, Wall Street Journal, New Yorker, The Economist) saw our views reflected in those publications. What we ignored is that these kinds of print media are no longer as trusted by the public at large. People don't care what the New York Times says.

The Gallup organization recently found that the percentage of Americans who expressed "a great deal" or "fair amount" of "trust and confidence" in mass media has declined steadily over the past two decades to a new low of 32%.

Pew Research Center's poll on trust and accuracy in the news media showed that news media are barely more trustworthy than family and friends in the minds of US adults. And while people distrust "social media", that doesn't include the people they know — friends, family and acquaintances.

Few have a lot of confidence in information from professional news outlets or friends and family, though majorities show at least some trust in both, but social media garners less trust than either

The decline in trust of the press is a global trend and runs in tandem with a decline in trust of many institutions. In a poll by the Reuters Institute, people in 26 countries were asked to respond to the statement that "you can trust most of the news most of the time".

The percent who agreed was highest in Finland, with 65%, and Greece was lowest with 20%. In between were Germany 52%, U.K. 50%, Spain 47%, Japan 43%, and the U.S. 33%.

Given this level of distrust, we should question the idea put forth by journalists in the U.K. and the U.S. that a blizzard of "certified" facts from traditional news organizations about Brexit or Hillary or Donald would have changed anyone's mind in the voting booth.

What's more, identifying the truth is complicated, as The Guardian's John Naughton has pointed out. Just because a normally reliable news outlet publishes something is no guarantee that it is true.

Media empires have been built on the notion that people want to be thrilled, entertained, and made to feel good about themselves rather than being educated. You can become fabulously wealthy betting on that side of human nature. And usually feeling good about oneself also means feeling superior to someone else. Political empires have also been built on this notion.

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