UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. — Penn State President Eric J. Barron will discuss the emergence of fake news, its impact on American culture, and what it means for legitimate news media during the next episode of WPSU’s “Digging Deeper” at 10:30 a.m. and 6 p.m. on Sunday, Jan. 20, on WPSU-TV.

For the show, Barron will welcome a pair of University experts from the Donald P. Bellisario College of Communications — Denise Bortree, director of the Arthur W. Page Center for Integrity in Public Communications and associate professor of advertising and public relations, and Russell Frank, associate professor of journalism.

Frank says the rise of fake news coincides with the blurring between news and opinion in mainstream news media.

“The view — on both the left and the right — that the mainstream news media are biased and therefore, not to believed, is deeply entrenched,” Frank said. “To regain the public trust, mainstream news organizations should banish ‘news analysis’ pieces to the opinion pages, clamp down on the snarkiness that has crept into a lot of political reporters’ coverage, and do a better job of explaining that news coverage does not reflect the slant of the organization’s editorial pages.”

Frank worked for newspapers in California and Pennsylvania as a reporter and editor for 12 years before joining Penn State in 1998. He teaches news, feature and column writing, news media ethics, and the literature of journalism. Bortree brings more than 10 years of practical experience to her teaching, including positions as communication manager, public relations manager, and marketing manager for a number of organizations.

Visit the WPSU website for more information and to watch archived episodes.