Fake News, Real Money: Ad Tech Platforms, Profit-Driven Hoaxes, and the Business of Journalism

Abstract

Following the viral spread of hoax political news in the lead-up to the 2016 U.S. presidential election, it's been reported that at least some of the individuals publishing these stories made substantial sums of money-tens of thousands of U.S. dollars-from their efforts. Whether or not such hoax stories are ultimately revealed to have had a persuasive impact on the electorate, they raise important normative questions about the underlying media infrastructures and industries-ad tech firms, programmatic advertising exchanges, etc.-that apparently created a lucrative incentive structure for "fake news" publishers. Legitimate ad-supported news organizations rely on the same infrastructure and industries for their livelihood. Thus, as traditional advertising subsidies for news have begun to collapse in the era of online advertising, it's important to understand how attempts to deal with for-profit hoaxes might simultaneously impact legitimate news organizations. Through 20 interviews with stakeholders in online advertising, this study looks at how the programmatic advertising industry understands "fake news," how it conceptualizes and grapples with the use of its tools by hoax publishers to generate revenue, and how its approach to the issue may ultimately contribute to reshaping the financial underpinnings of the digital journalism industry that depends on the same economic infrastructure.

From Purchasing Exposure to Fostering Engagement: Brand–Consumer Experiences in the Emerging Computational Advertising Landscape

“…This includes factors such as time and location (Lian, Cha, and Xu 2019). It also includes the need for ongoing considerations about where brand messages are being placed (even if programmatically), as evident from discussions about advertising supporting mis-and disinformation websites (Mills, Pitt, andFerguson 2019, Braun andEklund 2019), or even recent boycotts or actions to dissociate one's brand from specific social media platforms or channels.…”

The Reception of Fake News: The Interpretations and Practices That Shape the Consumption of Perceived Misinformation

“…Some attempts to define what constitutes fake news have focused on academic discourse (Lee 2018;Tandoc Jr et al 2018) or on perceptions in industry after the 2016 election (Braun and Eklund 2019). Regarding the first, it was shown that from 2003 to 2017 the term "fake news" has been used to refer to things as varied as news satire, parody, fabrication, manipulation, advertising, and propaganda (Tandoc Jr et al 2018).…”

Navigating the Scholarly Terrain: Introducing the Digital Journalism Studies Compass

“…Caught in the melee of advancing technologies and their implications for the hitherto industry of journalism, further challenges have emerged including, most recently, confrontations to our understanding of journalism as malevolent actors spread something other-than-news under the guise of journalism (Waisbord 2018, c.f. Tandoc, Ling, and, as audiences struggle to scrutinize and verify information as they too navigate change , and as advertisers seize on "fake news" as a revenue stream (Braun and Eklund 2019). The fact that content that disrupts journalism's allegiance with truth-telling succeeds creates incipient challenges as does the success of third-party digital platforms such as Facebook, where distribution and exposure are beyond the control of newsrooms, and fail to provide significant revenue streams for "real" news media (Myllylahti 2018).…”