Defining and detecting fake news in health and medicine reporting

The term ‘fake news’ has risen in prominence since 2016 as a means to discredit politically inconvenient reporting1 and more broadly standing for all information which is ‘inaccurate’.2 We suggest that deliberate reporting of lies or misleading interpretation of facts poses a threat to informed public decision-making as well as eroding trust in the media and legitimate authorities. Readers struggle to identify real news stories, and in one study of 203 Stanford University students, a majority of 80% thought a ‘native advert’ was a real news story.3 This issue is particularly rife in health and medicine reporting. Of the 20 most-shared articles on Facebook with the word ‘cancer’ in the headline, more than half report claims discredited by doctors and health authorities.4 When misleading news claims are made, it can be detrimental to public health5 and impacts both healthcare utilisation6 and medical non-compliance.7 It is therefore important to define exactly what fake news entails and how this can be detected in health and medicine reporting. This paper will provide a fake news definition and outline the specific fake news devices which most prominently feature in health and medicine reporting so that fake news can be detected. The paper makes a distinction between fake news and poor reporting in health and medicine news items, arguing that this is not a simple distinction between true and false. Rather that it is the extent that a news items is misleading and creates a fake view of health and medicine that constitutes what is considered fake news.