Does fake news remain fake if it is not perceived as real by the audience? (Tandoc et.al 2018, p.148)

This is complicated, and really dependent on the context of said piece. I personally believe that yes, it is still considered fake news, because the definition is more due to the intention of the project than the reception. Satire is slightly more clear-cut, as its reception involves humour, but with phenomena such as Poe’s Law, a good satirist can be very deadpan, with consumers missing the tongue-in-cheek humour.

When examining satire, reception gets even more muddled. Satirists are obviously trying to make light of something that has actually happened, and attempt to use this to see how close they can get to make people really think that it could happen. At times, even satirical pieces can become real.

One could also consider that the premise of the question is incorrect – in that there are likely to be no fake news articles that haven’t been perceived as real by at least one consumer. For example, look at the numerous scam emails that used to go around with poor spelling and grammar. I would personally see one of those emails, and laugh about how unconvincing it looks, however, people still seem to fall for them. Allegedly there are reasons why scammers write like that, but to the untrained eye, it seems ridiculous.