New Data & Society ethnographic study illuminates conservative methods of fact-checking media; warns that search engines may facilitate disinformation
Searching for Alternative Facts is an ethnographic account drawn directly from Francesca Tripodi’s research within upper-middle class conservative Christian communities in Virginia in 2017. Tripodi uses Christian practices of Biblical interpretation as a lens for understanding the relationship between so-called “alternative” or “fake news” sources and contemporary conservative political thought. “They critically interrogate media messages in…