Venturini (2019) defines “junk news” as news that is consumed not because it is appreciated, but because it is addictive. Spread, rather than fakeness, is the birthmark of this type of content: “”Junk News” is dangerous not because it is false, but because it saturates public debate, leaving little space to other discussion, reducing the richness of public debate and preventing more important stories from being heard.” (Venturini 2019, 126)

References

Venturini, T. (2019). From Fake to Junk News, the Data Politics of Online Virality. In D. Bigo, E. Isin, & E. Ruppert (Eds.), Data Politics: Worlds, Subjects, Rights. London: Routledge (forthcoming).