You're listening to an airwave media podcast.

Ben Franklin's world is a production of Colonial Williamsburg Innovation Studios.

Every time a piece of news jumps from one publication to another or when it jumps from one medium to another.

There's room for error. There's room for people to make honest mistakes or to misunderstand

the news and there's definitely room for people to engage in mischief. Hello and welcome to episode 375 of Ben Franklin's world.

The podcast dedicated to helping you learn more about how the people and

events of our early American past have shaped the present day world we live in.

And I'm your host Liz Kovart. Over the last decade, we've heard a lot about fake news and misinformation,

and as 2024 is an election year, it's likely we're going to hear even more about these terms.

So what is the origin of misinformation in the American

press? When did Americans decide that they needed to be concerned with figuring out

whether the information they heard or read was truthful or fake.

Jordan E. Taylor is a historian who studies the history of media and the ways that early Americans

created, spread, and circulated news.

He is also the author of the book Misinformation Nation,

Foreign News and the Politics of Truth in Revolutionary America. Now during our

investigation of news and misinformation in early America, Jordan reveals how early Americans obtain their news and how they judged whether to believe the news they read or heard.

How the emergence of political parties impacted the news early American printers printed in their newspapers,

and why early Americans seemed more interested in foreign news than in domestic news.

But first, after Jordan and I sat down for this conversation, he applied for a job at Colonial

Williamsburg's Innovation Studios, and I hired him to be our digital projects editor.

The team and I are so excited to have Jordan join us and help

...