Ethos, pathos and logos Comparative analysis of the (fake) news persuasive process

Authors

  • João Baptista Universidade da Beira Interior

Keywords:

Fake news, rhetoric, narrative, news

Abstract

 

Fake news continues to be widely shared and consumed, influencing and manipulating readers' beliefs. Our study aims to assess the persuasive ability of fake news, compared to news, through a textual analysis using Aristotelian persuasion evidence: ethos, pathos and logos. A textual analysis of 10 news published on the Facebook pages of newspapers and 10 publications on the Facebook pages of fake news was carried out. Our results allowed us to validate an analysis methodology. Fake news is concerned with persuading the reader by circumventing the appeal to reasoned arguments, trying to give priority to the emotional appeal (pathos) through feelings that overlap with reason and reasoning in the persuasive process. Through simple language and shorter texts, fake news has a persuasive heuristic method, unlike news that validates its arguments with facts, evidence and quotes.

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2023-05-11

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