What kinds of social media users read junk news? We examine the distribution
of the most significant sources of junk news in the three months before
President Donald Trump first State of the Union Address. Drawing on a list of
sources that consistently publish political news and information that is
extremist, sensationalist, conspiratorial, masked commentary, fake news and
other forms of junk news, we find that the distribution of such content is
unevenly spread across the ideological spectrum. We demonstrate that (1) on
Twitter, a network of Trump supporters shares the widest range of known junk
news sources and circulates more junk news than all the other groups put
together; (2) on Facebook, extreme hard right pages, distinct from Republican
pages, share the widest range of known junk news sources and circulate more
junk news than all the other audiences put together; (3) on average, the
audiences for junk news on Twitter share a wider range of known junk news
sources than audiences on Facebook public pages.