Faking The News: Lying in an Age of Illiterate Consumption
During the 2016 election cycle, so-called “fake news” dominated the news cycle and the attention of American voters. However, the publication and consumption of fake news in 2016 was the result of evolution, not revolution. This lecture will explore the history of misleading media and address the implications of technology and technological literacy in the current of American democracy.
R. James Wertz, Ph.D.
Dr. Wertz serves as the Director of the Honors Program at Edinboro University of Pennsylvania and is an Assistant Professor of journalism and digital media as well as the journalism program coordinator in the Department of Journalism and Public Relations. Dr. Wertz has also taught courses in U.S. and Latin American history in Edinboro University’s Department of History, Anthropology, and World Languages. A Reading, Pa. native, Wertz earned concurrent Bachelor Degrees in History and Speech Communication from Edinboro University, received a master’s degree from The American University in Washington, D.C., where he studied the history of American politics and culture in post-1945 America, and completed his Ph.D. in Communications Media and Instructional Technology at Indiana University of Pennsylvania.
