I've fallen for fake news.  It's likely that you have, too.  I wrote this book for ordinary people (not academics!) who want to know why we face this problem and how we can solve it. Beyond Fake News offers a technological and market-based explanation for how our informational environment became so polluted. It shows how purveyors of news often have incentives to mislead us, and how consumers of information often have incentives to be misled. And it chronicles how, as technology improves and the regulatory burdens drop, our information-scape becomes ever more littered with misinformation. I argue that even when we really want the truth, our minds are limited in scope and blind spots mar our view of the world.

But we can do better, both as individuals and as a society. As individuals, we can improve the accuracy of our understanding of the world by recognizing our limitations and figuring out who to trust. And as a society, we can take important steps to reduce the quantity and effects of misinformation in our environment.

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If you're a teacher interested in using Beyond Fake News in your class, I built a sample syllabus for a course called News and Knowing.  Feel free to adapt it to the needs of your students!