It’s important that we figure out how Fake News works, whether it’s truly as bad as they say it is or not. The simple truth is these stories do have an impact on some people, and that’s definitely not a good thing. We also have to be careful not to overstate the problem however.

We have a few specific recommendations for where we should go from here:

• Recognize that Fake News is likely not “an epidemic”. It is a problem, but honestly most people seem to be able to at least harbor some suspicion towards articles that aren’t real.
• More research needs to be done with a larger sample size. The data we got was not sufficient enough to claim any kind of “final answer” here.
• We need a multidisciplinary approach to this problem. Combine Journalism, Psychology, Marketing (many fake sites are using sensational “news” to get clicks), Data Analysts/Statisticians, etc. It’s only with this approach that we may even come close to truly understanding the multifaceted nature of fake news.
• And last but not least, don’t panic! Partisanship does not seem to be that significant in people evaluation of sources, so all the stuff you hear on TV about how we are “more divided than ever” might not be as true as you think, or at least not in the news world.

AND LAST BUT NOT LEAST!