scholarly journals Information overload and fake news sharing: A transactional stress perspective exploring the mitigating role of consumers’ resilience during COVID-19

2021 ◽  
Vol 61 ◽  
pp. 102555
Author(s):  
Alena Bermes
Keyword(s):  
Information Overload ◽  
Fake News ◽  
News Sharing

scholarly journals Social media affordances and information abundance: Enabling fake news sharing during the COVID-19 health crisis

2021 ◽  
Vol 27 (3) ◽  
pp. 146045822110214
Author(s):  
Oberiri Destiny Apuke ◽  
Bahiyah Omar
Keyword(s):  
Social Media ◽  
Information Sharing ◽  
Information Overload ◽  
Online Information ◽  
Fake News ◽  
Health Crisis ◽  
Load Theory ◽  
Information Status ◽  
Status Seeking ◽  
News Sharing

This study modelled factors that predict fake news sharing during the COVID-19 health crisis using the perspective of the affordance and cognitive load theory. Data were drawn from 385 social media users in Nigeria, and Partial Least Squares (PLS) was used to analyse the data. We found that news-find-me perception, information overload, trust in online information, status seeking, self-expression and information sharing predicted fake news sharing related to COVID-19 pandemic among social media users in Nigeria. Greater effects of news-find-me perception and information overload were found on fake news sharing behaviour as compared to trust in online information, status seeking, self-expression and information sharing. Theoretically, our study enriches the current literature by focusing on the affordances of social media and the abundance of online information in predicting fake news sharing behaviour among social media users, especially in Nigeria. Practically, we suggest intervention strategies which nudge people to be sceptical of the information they come across on social media.

scholarly journals Modelling the antecedent factors that affect online fake news sharing on COVID-19: the moderating role of fake news knowledge

2020 ◽  
Vol 35 (5) ◽  
pp. 490-503
Author(s):  
Oberiri Destiny Apuke ◽  
Bahiyah Omar
Keyword(s):  
Social Networking Sites ◽  
Information Seeking ◽  
Social Impact ◽  
Parasocial Interaction ◽  
Tie Strength ◽  
Fake News ◽  
Status Seeking ◽  
News Sharing ◽  
Moderating Role

Abstract We proposed a conceptual model combining three theories: uses and gratification theory, social networking sites (SNS) dependency theory and social impact theory to understand the factors that predict fake news sharing related to COVID-19. We also tested the moderating role of fake news knowledge in reducing the tendency to share fake news. Data were drawn from social media users (n = 650) in Nigeria, and partial least squares was used to analyse the data. Our results suggest that tie strength was the strongest predictor of fake news sharing related to COVID-19 pandemic. We also found perceived herd, SNS dependency, information-seeking and parasocial interaction to be significant predictors of fake news sharing. The effect of status-seeking on fake news sharing, however, was not significant. Our results also established that fake news knowledge significantly moderated the effect of perceived herd, SNS dependency, information-seeking, parasocial interaction on fake news sharing related to COVID-19. However, tie strength and status-seeking effects were not moderated.

scholarly journals Actors, Partisan Inclination, and Emotions: An Analysis of Government Shutdown News Stories Shared on Twitter

2021 ◽  
Vol 7 (2) ◽  
pp. 205630512110088
Author(s):  
Colin Agur ◽  
Lanhuizi Gan
Keyword(s):  
Emotional Responses ◽  
The United States ◽  
Online Information ◽  
News Frames ◽  
Data Set ◽  
Political Issues ◽  
News Stories ◽  
News Sharing ◽  
Government Shutdown

Scholars have recognized emotion as an increasingly important element in the reception and retransmission of online information. In the United States, because of existing differences in ideology, among both audiences and producers of news stories, political issues are prone to spark considerable emotional responses online. While much research has explored emotional responses during election campaigns, this study focuses on the role of online emotion in social media posts related to day-to-day governance in between election periods. Specifically, this study takes the 2018–2019 government shutdown as its subject of investigation. The data set shows the prominence of journalistic and political figures in leading the discussion of news stories, the nuance of emotions employed in the news frames, and the choice of pro-attitudinal news sharing.

scholarly journals Perceived truth of statements and simulated social media postings: an experimental investigation of source credibility, repeated exposure, and presentation format

2020 ◽  
Vol 5 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Lena Nadarevic ◽  
Rolf Reber ◽  
Anne Josephine Helmecke ◽  
Dilara Köse
Keyword(s):  
Social Media ◽  
Source Credibility ◽  
Repeated Exposure ◽  
Presentation Format ◽  
The Internet ◽  
Additive Effects ◽  
Fake News ◽  
Source Information ◽  
Internet Age

Abstract To better understand the spread of fake news in the Internet age, it is important to uncover the variables that influence the perceived truth of information. Although previous research identified several reliable predictors of truth judgments—such as source credibility, repeated information exposure, and presentation format—little is known about their simultaneous effects. In a series of four experiments, we investigated how the abovementioned factors jointly affect the perceived truth of statements (Experiments 1 and 2) and simulated social media postings (Experiments 3 and 4). Experiment 1 explored the role of source credibility (high vs. low vs. no source information) and presentation format (with vs. without a picture). In Experiments 2 and 3, we additionally manipulated repeated exposure (yes vs. no). Finally, Experiment 4 examined the role of source credibility (high vs. low) and type of repetition (congruent vs. incongruent vs. no repetition) in further detail. In sum, we found no effect of presentation format on truth judgments, but strong, additive effects of source credibility and repetition. Truth judgments were higher for information presented by credible sources than non-credible sources and information without sources. Moreover, congruent (i.e., verbatim) repetition increased perceived truth whereas semantically incongruent repetition decreased perceived truth, irrespectively of the source. Our findings show that people do not rely on a single judgment cue when evaluating a statement’s truth but take source credibility and their meta-cognitive feelings into account.

scholarly journals How Can Psychological Science Help Counter the Spread of Fake News?

2021 ◽  
Vol 24 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sander van der Linden ◽  
Jon Roozenbeek ◽  
Rakoen Maertens ◽  
Melisa Basol ◽  
Ondřej Kácha ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Research Agenda ◽  
Source Credibility ◽  
Fake News ◽  
Intervention Effectiveness ◽  
Motivated Cognition ◽  
Individual Level ◽  
Psychological Science ◽  
Open Questions ◽  
The Individual

Abstract In recent years, interest in the psychology of fake news has rapidly increased. We outline the various interventions within psychological science aimed at countering the spread of fake news and misinformation online, focusing primarily on corrective (debunking) and pre-emptive (prebunking) approaches. We also offer a research agenda of open questions within the field of psychological science that relate to how and why fake news spreads and how best to counter it: the longevity of intervention effectiveness; the role of sources and source credibility; whether the sharing of fake news is best explained by the motivated cognition or the inattention accounts; and the complexities of developing psychometrically validated instruments to measure how interventions affect susceptibility to fake news at the individual level.

scholarly journals The Rise of Misinformation in the Digital Age: Moroccan Students' Attitudes and Perceptions of Fake News Online

2018 ◽  
Vol 3 (2) ◽  
pp. 117
Author(s):  
Isam Mrah ◽  
Hicham Tizaoui
Keyword(s):  
Digital Literacy ◽  
Information Overload ◽  
Primary Source ◽  
Literacy Skills ◽  
Accurate Information ◽  
Fake News ◽  
Attitudes And Perceptions ◽  
Teachers And Students ◽  
Processing Information ◽  
Students Attitudes

<em>As today’s students spend substantial time online, there is an increasing tendency to utilize the Internet as their primary source of information. With the proliferation of user-generated content platforms and the shrinking influence of traditional gatekeeping, there is a growing abundance of misinformation available to the public that coexists alongside accurate information. In this paper, we explored the attitudes and perceptions of teenage students towards misinformation online. To this end, a web-based survey was administered to both Moroccan high school teachers and students to collect and analyze their responses regarding the issue being debated. Additionally, the present study investigated the extent to which EFL textbooks in Morocco enable learners to build skills necessary for identifying fake news. The study adopted content analysis as the primary research method for data analysis and interpretation. The results obtained are in line with the hypothesis guiding this research that a fair majority of teenage students are vulnerable to misinformation online due in large to the overwhelming information overload available at the touch of a button along with their lack of exposure to effective strategies for processing information online.  Based on the findings obtained, schools are required to develop appropriate approaches to teach digital literacy skills, particularly in empowering young learners to distinguish credible sources from unreliable ones. Equally important, teachers are called upon to help students keep up with the new, fast-moving knowledge economy, which is driven by information and technology.</em>

scholarly journals Beyond “fake news”: The role of analytic thinking in the detection of inaccuracy and partisan bias in news headlines

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Robert M Ross ◽  
David Gertler Rand ◽  
Gordon Pennycook
Keyword(s):  
Social Media ◽  
Fake News ◽  
Analytic Thinking ◽  
Total N ◽  
Partisan Bias ◽  
News Content ◽  
Political Bias ◽  
Political Partisanship ◽  
News Headlines

Why is misleading partisan content believed and shared? An influential account posits that political partisanship pervasively biases reasoning, such that engaging in analytic thinking exacerbates motivated reasoning and, in turn, the acceptance of hyperpartisan content. Alternatively, it may be that susceptibility to hyperpartisan misinformation is explained by a lack of reasoning. Across two studies using different subject pools (total N = 1977), we had participants assess true, false, and hyperpartisan headlines taken from social media. We found no evidence that analytic thinking was associated with increased polarization for either judgments about the accuracy of the headlines or willingness to share the news content on social media. Instead, analytic thinking was broadly associated with an increased capacity to discern between true headlines and either false or hyperpartisan headlines. These results suggest that reasoning typically helps people differentiate between low and high quality news content, rather than facilitating political bias.

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