The Post-Truth Archive: Considerations for Archiving Context in Fake News Repositories

摘要

Our current media environment is in a state of post-truth disruption: fake news is rampant, trusted media sources are viewed as partisan and suspect, and emotional appeal and personal belief hold more influence than objective facts. While many information professions are focused on combatting fake news through media literacy education, policy development, and advancements in search and social media technology, the archival profession has a slightly different task: evaluating how fake news can be preserved. The proliferation of fake news marks a significant cultural shift in information, politics, and identity, and is a valuable retrospective on how we consume and share media and assess its collective impact on society. But archiving fake news is a complex endeavor, particularly when it comes to ensuring that the archive includes enough context to help future researchers interpret the information. This article briefly explores some of the ways archivists may need to rethink traditional archival practices when developing repositories for fake news in their archives.