The Impact of Fake News on Public Trust in Journalism: Challenges and Solutions
Scientists examine how fake news shapes public reception toward media platforms as they analyze the obstacles that journalists face when producing factual reports. The research studies fake news operations through surveys in addition to media professional interviews and fake news article content analysis to understand its procedures along with public consequences and control methods. The study reveals social media recommendations as the main source that drives fake news distribution which creates growing partisan beliefs and mistrust between both mass and online news outlets. The emotional intensity in fake news reports results in rapid dissemination because of these strong responses, particularly when they cause anger. Fact-checking websites haven't significantly improved public ability to spot fake news, as 68% of people still remain confused. The paper underlines media monitoring as the foundation for addressing fake news through increased media literacy education as well as transparent journalistic practices and rigorous fact-checking systems.
-
(1) Robina Saeed
Associate Professor, School of Media and Communication Studies, Minhaj University Lahore, Punjab, Pakistan.
(2) Sher Baz Khan
Research Fellow, Erich Brost Institute for International Journalism, Technical University Dortmund, Germany.
-
Au, C. H., Ho, K. K. W., & Chiu, D. K. (2022). The role of online misinformation and fake news in ideological polarization: barriers, catalysts, and implications. Information Systems Frontiers, 24(4), 1331–1354. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10796-021-10133-9
- Cavaliere, P. (2020). From journalistic ethics to fact-checking practices: Defining the standards of content governance in the fight against disinformation. Journal of Media Law, 12(2), 133–165. https://doi.org/10.1080/17577632.2020.1869486
- Chambers, S. (2021). Truth, deliberative democracy, and the virtues of accuracy: is fake news destroying the public sphere?. Political Studies, 69(1), 147-163. http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/0032321719890811
- Collins, B., Hoang, D. T., Nguyen, N. T., & Hwang, D. (2020). Trends in combating fake news on social media – a survey. Journal of Information and Telecommunication, 1–20. https://doi.org/10.1080/24751839.2020.1847379
- Das, A. K., & Tripathi, M. (2023). Strategies for checking misinformation: An approach from the Global South. IFLA journal, 49(1), 3-17. http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/03400352221078034
- Diep, P. P. U. (2024). Check the checks: A comparison of fact-checking practices between newspapers and independent organizations during 2020 U.S. election presidential debates. Newspaper Research Journal. https://doi.org/10.1177/07395329241298965
- Dvorkin, J. (2021). Trusting the news in a digital age: Toward a "new" news literacy. John Wiley & Sons.
- Hernández, M., & Madrid-Morales, D. (2020). Diversifying voice, democratizing the news? A content analysis of citizen news sources in Spanish-language international broadcasting. Journalism Studies, 21(8), 1076-1092. http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/1461670X.2020.1734857
- Humprecht, E. (2020). How do they debunk “fake news”? A cross-national comparison of transparency in fact checks. Digital journalism, 8(3), 310-327. https://doi.org/10.1080/21670811.2019.1691031
- Kantola, A., & Harju, A. A. (2021). Tackling the emotional toll together: How journalists address harassment with connective practices. Journalism, 24(3), 494–512. https://doi.org/10.1177/14648849211055293
- Kozyreva, A., Lewandowsky, S., & Hertwig, R. (2020). Citizens versus the internet: Confronting digital challenges with cognitive tools. Psychological Science in the Public Interest, 21(3), 103–156. https://doi.org/10.1177/1529100620946707
- Machete, P., & Turpin, M. (2020). The Use of Critical Thinking to Identify Fake News: A Systematic Literature Review. In Lecture notes in computer science (pp. 235–246). https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-45002-1_20
- Mayorga, M. W., Hester, E. B., Helsel, E., Ivanov, B., Sellnow, T. L., Slovic, P., ... & Frakes, D. (2020). Enhancing public resistance to “fake news”: A review of the problem and strategic solutions. In The Handbook of applied communication research (pp. 197–212).
- McHaney, R., & Daniel, J. (2023). The new digital shoreline. https://doi.org/10.4324/9781003447979
- Michailidou, A., Eike, E., & Trenz, H. (2022). Journalism, Truth and the Restoration of trust in democracy: Tracing the EU ‘Fake News’ strategy. In Springer eBooks (pp. 53–75). https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-13694-8_4
- Osmundsen, M., Bor, A., Vahlstrup, P. B., Bechmann, A., & Petersen, M. B. (2021). Partisan polarization is the primary psychological motivation behind political fake news sharing on Twitter. American Political Science Review, 115(3), 999-1015. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0003055421000290
- Phillips, W., & Milner, R. M. (2021). You are here: A field guide for navigating polarized speech, conspiracy theories, and our polluted media landscape. MIT Press.
- Santos-d’Amorim, K., & De Oliveira Miranda, M. F. (2021). Informação incorreta, desinformação e má informação: Esclarecendo definições e exemplos em tempos de desinfodemia. Encontros Bibli Revista Eletrônica De Biblioteconomia E Ciência Da Informação, 26, 01–23. https://doi.org/10.5007/1518-2924.2021.e76900
- Schulz, A., Wirth, W., & Müller, P. (2020). We are the people and you are fake news: A social identity approach to populist citizens’ false consensus and hostile media perceptions. Communication Research, 47(2), 201–226. https://doi.org/10.1177/0093650218794854
- Strömbäck, J., Tsfati, Y., Boomgaarden, H., Damstra, A., Lindgren, E., Vliegenthart, R., & Lindholm, T. (2020). News media trust and its impact on media use: Toward a framework for future research. Annals of the International Communication Association, 44(2), 139-156. https://doi.org/10.1080/23808985.2020.1755338
- Suryana, C., Budiandru, B., Naibaho, K. E. T., Setianti, Y., & Purwosusanto, H. (2024). The Impact of Fake News on Public Opinion during Crisis Situations. The Journal of Academic Science, 1(4), 395-407. http://dx.doi.org/10.59613/s7tpg791
- Swart, J., & Broersma, M. (2022). The trust gap: Young people's tactics for assessing the reliability of political news. The International Journal of Press/Politics, 27(2), 396-416. https://doi.org/10.1177/19401612211006696
- Van der Linden, S., Panagopoulos, C., & Roozenbeek, J. (2020). You are fake news: political bias in perceptions of fake news. Media, culture & society, 42(3), 460-470. https://doi.org/10.1177/0163443720906992
- Verstraete, M., Bambauer, D. E., & Bambauer, J. R. (2017). Identifying and countering fake news. SSRN Electronic Journal. https://doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.3007971
- Vese, D. (2022). Governing fake news: the regulation of social media and the right to freedom of expression in the era of emergency. European Journal of Risk Regulation, 13(3), 477-513. https://doi.org/10.1017/err.2021.48
Cite this article
-
APA : Saeed, R., & Khan, S. B. (2025). The Impact of Fake News on Public Trust in Journalism: Challenges and Solutions. Global Social Sciences Review, X(I), 134-149. https://doi.org/10.31703/gssr.2025(X-I).12
-
CHICAGO : Saeed, Robina, and Sher Baz Khan. 2025. "The Impact of Fake News on Public Trust in Journalism: Challenges and Solutions." Global Social Sciences Review, X (I): 134-149 doi: 10.31703/gssr.2025(X-I).12
-
HARVARD : SAEED, R. & KHAN, S. B. 2025. The Impact of Fake News on Public Trust in Journalism: Challenges and Solutions. Global Social Sciences Review, X, 134-149.
-
MHRA : Saeed, Robina, and Sher Baz Khan. 2025. "The Impact of Fake News on Public Trust in Journalism: Challenges and Solutions." Global Social Sciences Review, X: 134-149
-
MLA : Saeed, Robina, and Sher Baz Khan. "The Impact of Fake News on Public Trust in Journalism: Challenges and Solutions." Global Social Sciences Review, X.I (2025): 134-149 Print.
-
OXFORD : Saeed, Robina and Khan, Sher Baz (2025), "The Impact of Fake News on Public Trust in Journalism: Challenges and Solutions", Global Social Sciences Review, X (I), 134-149
-
TURABIAN : Saeed, Robina, and Sher Baz Khan. "The Impact of Fake News on Public Trust in Journalism: Challenges and Solutions." Global Social Sciences Review X, no. I (2025): 134-149. https://doi.org/10.31703/gssr.2025(X-I).12