“Fake News” and Emerging Online Media Ecosystem: An Integrated Intermedia Agenda-Setting Analysis of the 2016 U.S. Presidential Election

This study examined how fake news, misinformation, and satire, affected the emerging media ecosystem during the 2016 U.S. presidential election through an integrated intermedia agenda-setting analysis, which studies broad attributes and myopic stories and events. A computer-assisted content analysis of millions of news articles was conducted alongside a qualitative analysis of popular news headlines and articles. The results showed that websites that spread misinformation had a fairly close intermedia agenda-setting relationship with fact-based media in covering Trump, but not for the news about Clinton. Satire websites barely interacted with the agenda of other media outlets. Overall, it seemed that rather than playing a unique agenda-setting role in this emerging media landscape, fake news websites added some noise to an already sensationalized news environment.