Users’ perspectives on what f*ke news and misinformation is and isn’t, who drives it, and where people say they see it are important for understanding the scale and scope of public concern, and how this corresponds with research insights and aligns with proposed responses to these problems, as well as for the credibility and even effect of responses. In this presentation, Professor Rasmus Kleis Nielsen, Director of the Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism, uses survey data and focus group material from Reuters Institute research to present an overview of user perspectives on “fake news” and misinformation more broadly, and identify some commonalities and differences between how, respectively, the public, researchers, and policymakers talk about these problems.

Professor Rasmus Kleis Nielsen is Director of the Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism and Professor of Political Communication at the University of Oxford. He was previously Director of Research at the Reuters Institute and Editor-in-Chief of the International Journal of Press/Politics. His work focuses on changes in the news media, on political communication, and the role of digital technologies in both. He has done extensive research on journalism, American politics, and various forms of activism, and a significant amount of comparative work in Western Europe and beyond.