“Fake News” in Reformulated Messages
Towards Expanding the Toolset for Identifying Misinformation
Abstract
In an age where information spreads faster than ever, the subtle manipulation of truth through rephrasing plays a pivotal role in amplifying mis‑ information. Starting from the observation that the spread of “fake news” may be significantly reinforced through reformulating a message for the sake of its mis‑ representation, we seek to address the problem of the spread of “fake news” from the perspective of the rephrasing of news for purposes of misinformation. Given such a potentially dangerous role for misuses of rephrasing, the following research question arises: what is the relation between “fake news” and reformulated mes‑ sages? This question will be addressed by analysing to what extent (i) definitions of “fake news” in the computer‑science and philosophy‑related literature, and (ii) recent linguistic studies of rephrase (as it is sometimes known), are helpful in identifying the main features of “fake news” as these relate to the latter. In this regard, we propose a research programme for addressing rephrase as a linguis‑ tic phenomenon—one that will serve as a tool for the study of communication in respect of “fake news.”
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