Rebekah Modrak: Afterimage Journal Features “Fake News” Essay

An article co-written by Stamps Associate Professor Rebekah Modrak and Rochester Institute of Technology communications scholar Jonathan Schroeder is featured in the latest issue of Afterimage: The Journal of Media Arts and Cultural Criticism, published by Visual Studies Workshop. The article is part of a special issue of Afterimage called ​“Media Literacy in a Post-Factual Age.” 

Modrak and Schroeder’s article, ​“Performing Skepticism through Parody: Re Made Company’s Media Critique”, proposes that the artwork Re Made Co.’s fabrication of fake New York Times and Wall Street Journal articles, among others, is a positive parodic version of ​“fake news” that exposes flaws in journalism and media, which feign criticality while simultaneously propagating brand messaging. Whereas ​“fake news” via the internet, as in the context of the 2016 Trump/​Clinton election, poses serious concerns for democratic processes and critical perspectives, the ​“fake news” of Re Made can be an important training tool to teach skepticism about information presented via internet-based media — an elaborate effort to enhance media literacy. 

The Re Made Co. work can be viewed at http://​remadeco​.org/