The Problem of Fake News in Contemporary Media

This work focuses on the issue of fake news and related disinformation in contemporary, especially electronic media. The aim of the thesis is to clarify the definition of fake news and their function in the context of media manipulation and to give a comprehensive picture of this issue. Fake news are also related with hoaxes, rumors, urban legends, conspiracy theories and more. This work also maps the incidence of fake news especially in the Czech environment, estimates the possible reach of false news to the audience and describes their characteristics. These characteristics include captions in the form of a clickbait, highlighting emotions, manipulation with lexical means and invective, misleading or completely not specified sources (and seeming authority) and the construction of reality by image materials. Another aim of this work is to delineate the problems that fake news affect. It includes violations of journalistic ethics, growing distrust in traditional media, possible influence on political preferences, violation of legislation or personalization of the content. The research is based on the analysis of a representative sample of fake news, their comparison and a survey of public opinion. In the end, this work also proposes solutions for a defense against fake news and prevent their..