Teenagers Faced with “Fake News”: Perceptions and the Evaluation of an Epistemic Risk

This chapter focuses on how an objective approach to fake news is perceived by a specific segment of the population: teenagers. It first proposes a synthesis of studies on the production and dissemination processes of fake news and how it is identified and assessed by the public. The aim is to characterize fake news from a scientific point of view to better identify the informational risks it is likely to generate. The chapter then aims to uncover the perceptions held by teenagers on this informational and social phenomenon. It describes the methodology of the authors’ study, based on interviews with 14 young people aged 14 to 17. Finally, the results are presented and discussed by comparing them to other studies, particularly those concerning credibility judgments. They are considered in relation to questions on Media and Information Literacy and, more particularly, through reflections on the teaching practices used to enable young people to critically evaluate information.