Fake News and Home Truths, Its Effects on the Contemporary Political Narratives: An Appraisal of India and Nigeria
Marysa Rachel Edwin, Gilbert Laankwap Yalmi

Abstract
The on-going discussion on fake news is mostly focused on American and British societies in the political and social atmosphere of „alternative facts‟ which is non-truth. However, the issues about the impact of fake news on journalism are not contained to British and American contexts only. This paper attempts to examine the alternative facts in Indian and Nigerian societies as well as the Journalism practices in this contemporary media-savvy phase. Unlike the issues projected in the western debate on the need to re-engage and empathize with the audience and the rise of a non-facts checking culture, the apprehensions appear to be slightly different in India and Nigeria. Findings in these two countries reveal that there is a higher rate of fake news pedalled around social media platforms. According to a study conducted in India and Nigeria by the BBC in 2018, it found out that the lack of faith in mainstream news made people spread unreliable information from varying sources. The study summarises how digital platforms like Facebook. Twitter and WhatsApp fuels people to share, comment and retweet information without fact-checking. Unfortunately, this has caused a lot of violence and lack of trust in politicians and their political narratives in both countries.

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