Lies, damn lies, and fake news: toward a library science and digital curation-oriented methodology for web archiving national news and social media

Abstract

In recognition of their importance, the National Library and Archives Canada (LAC) has web archived Canadian news and social media since 2006. As part of our Web and Social Media Preservation Program collections development and methodological evolution, and to make advances in efficiency and in our ability to respond to and document unforeseen events of national historic or international significance, we started broadly web archiving front page news and social media from selected sources and in an automated manner in 2015.

Since the web now constitutes an invaluable primary source for 21st century digital society and for the writing of future history, managed action is necessary to preserve it while it is available. The news media provides many perspectives and chronological descriptions of how any major event unfolded; social media provides the full spectrum of political, regional, economic, and cultural first-hand perspectives. This paper discusses the web archival strategies and methodologies developed at LAC that drive our news and social media evaluation and acquisition, with particular attention to the politics of “fake news”, COVID-19, and the invasion of Ukraine. It also describes the details of media collection in association with large-scale thematic web archival (research) and data collections – all of which is informed by the guiding principles of digital curation and preservation.

Our deliberate targeting of 'fake news’ and 'extreme political viewpoints' will be explored, with arguments for its collection as source to support future inquiries and research in its own right. Ethical and legal considerations (or potential consequences!) libraries could face for labelling or excluding such content, and strategies for addressing this, are also provided.