Throughout history propaganda has been used to dehumanize certain groups, demonize perspectives, and divide the populace.
Some information is intended to alienate or create hate towards a group of people such as this image from a newspaper from Nazi era Germany..
Donald Trump has complicated the fake news issue by effectively co-opting the term itself, as he has repeatedly used it as a slur or epithet for mainstream news outlets (and individual reporters) whose coverage he finds objectionable, especially CNN. This is a problematic trend, both because it adds an extra step to debunking fake news stories and because it has the potential to blur the distinction between professional reporting and actual fake news production, at least in some people's minds.
No news outlets are entirely free of political bias (as no people are), and bias colors news stories. However, a news institution that is guilty of mild-to-moderate bias but strives for factual accuracy is not "fake news." The following TED Talks video addresses these and other issues.
Content adopted from the CWU Libraries research guide with permission.
