Fake News - joint research by IAB UK and IAB UK Board member news brands

The research was conducted as part of an effort by IAB UK and its key news brand members to highlight the importance of journalism. You can watch the Engage 2017 session where fake news Editor in Chief Ken Fawes (AKA Fake News) is exposed by David Walsh, the Sunday Times Chief Sports Writer here.

The results show that those online are heavy consumers of online news with the majority reading news online every day. Internet users are also able to differentiate between online news providers in terms of accuracy with 83% agreeing that they trust some providers more than others.

There are also very high levels of awareness of the concept of fake news with 92% saying that they were aware of the term. Most importantly the research shows that fake news has a significant impact on advertising and levels of trust. 75% of respondents said that they would not trust an ad on a fake news site, compared to 9% who said they would trust an ad on a fake news site. On the flip side 57% of respondents said that they trust adverts more on websites / apps that they consider to report accurate news content.

This conclusion seems significant for advertisers, not only can fake news be harmful to consumers but it also damages brands by decreasing trust. You can download the full research results below and see our video of how we created Ken Fawes and the fake news session.