scholarly journals The Impact of Social Media on Communication Sciences and Disorders: A Need for Examination and Research

2019 ◽  
Vol 4 (2) ◽  
pp. 224-227 ◽  
Author(s):  
Patrick Finn

Purpose Peer-reviewed research is the typical pathway for research to be implemented into clinical practice. However, the Internet, digital technology, and social media have introduced significant changes for how this information is shared, publicized, evaluated, and utilized. Some of these changes are positive, such as rapid distribution of needed information, whereas others are negative, such as widespread dissemination and influence of fake news and misinformation. The purpose of this editorial is to provide a brief look at how these negative changes have affected the helping professions. Conclusion In view of the wide-ranging challenges and influences described here, this editorial is a call for action to our researchers, educators, and clinicians to examine how social media has impacted the scientific practice of communication sciences and disorders. It concludes with a series of questions and examples for how this examination might unfold.

2018 ◽  
Vol 69 (4) ◽  
pp. 513-530
Author(s):  
Paul Bernal

The current ‘fake news’ phenomenon is a modern manifestation of something that has existed throughout history. The difference between what happens now and what has happened before is driven by the nature of the internet and social media – and Facebook in particular. Three key strands of Facebook’s business model – invading privacy to profile individuals, analysing mass data to profile groups, then algorithmically curating content and targeting individuals and groups for advertising – create a perfect environment for fake news. Proposals to ‘deal’ with fake news either focus on symptoms or embed us further in the algorithms that create the problem. Whilst we embrace social media, particularly as a route to news, there is little that can be done to reduce the impact of fake news and misinformation. The question is whether the benefits to freedom of expression that social media brings mean that this is a price worth paying.


Author(s):  
Elly Hanson

This chapter argues that the ideology of cyberlibertarianism, combined with organisational social processes and the impact of power, have contributed to tech corporations acting in ways that facilitate child sexual exploitation (CSE; both directly and indirectly). Relatedly, cyberlibertarianism has contributed to online spaces and processes being understood and approached as freer from social and moral concerns than others. Thus, the chapter specifically explores how the evolution, design, and control of the Internet and digital technology have been conducive to CSE. Four key (interrelated) online routes to increased CSE are highlighted involving online sex offending psychology, the online porn industry, online ‘escort’ agencies, and the interaction of social media and gaming platforms with adolescent developmental proclivities. Practice and policy implications of this ‘big picture’ perspective of online contributors to CSE are then explored.


2018 ◽  
Vol 69 (4) ◽  
pp. 513-530
Author(s):  
Paul Bernal

The current ‘fake news’ phenomenon is a modern manifestation of something that has existed throughout history. The difference between what happens now and what has happened before is driven by the nature of the internet and social media – and Facebook in particular. Three key strands of Facebook’s business model – invading privacy to profile individuals, analysing mass data to profile groups, then algorithmically curating content and targeting individuals and groups for advertising – create a perfect environment for fake news. Proposals to ‘deal’ with fake news either focus on symptoms or embed us further in the algorithms that create the problem. Whilst we embrace social media, particularly as a route to news, there is little that can be done to reduce the impact of fake news and misinformation. The question is whether the benefits to freedom of expression that social media brings mean that this is a price worth paying.


Author(s):  
Esra Bozkanat

As Web 2.0 technologies have turned the Internet into an interactive medium, users dominate the field. With the spread of social media, the Internet has become much more user-oriented. In contrast to traditional media, social media's lack of control mechanisms makes the accuracy of spreading news questionable. This brings us to the significance of fact-checking platforms. This study investigates the antecedents of spreading false news in Turkey. The purpose of the study is to determine the features of fake news. For this purpose, teyit.org, the biggest fact-checking platform in Turkey, has been chosen for analysis. The current study shows fake news to be detectable based on four features: Propagation, User Type, Social Media Type, and Formatting. According to the logistic regression analysis, the study's model obtained 86.7% accuracy. The study demonstrates that Facebook increases the likelihood of news being fake compared to Twitter or Instagram. Emoji usage is also statistically significant in terms of increasing the probability of fake news. Unexpectedly, the impact of photos or videos was found statistically insignificant.


2019 ◽  
Vol 11 (2) ◽  
pp. 373-392 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sam Gregory

Abstract Pessimism currently prevails around human rights globally, as well as about the impact of digital technology and social media in supporting rights. However, there have been key successes in the use of these tools for documentation and advocacy in the past decade, including greater participation, more documentation, and growth of new fields around citizen evidence and fact-finding. Governments and others antagonistic to human rights have caught up in terms of weaponizing the affordances of the internet and pushing back on rights actors. Key challenges to be grappled with are consistent with ones that have existed for a decade but are exacerbated now—how to protect and enhance safety of vulnerable people and provide agency over visibility and anonymity; how to ensure and improve trust and credibility of human rights documentation and advocacy campaigning; and how to identify and use new strategies that optimize for a climate of volume of media, declining trust in traditional sources, and active strategies of distraction and misinformation. All of these activities take place primarily within a set of platforms that are governed by commercial imperatives and attention-based algorithms, and that increasingly use unaccountable content moderation processes driven by artificial intelligence. The article argues for a pragmatic approach to harm reduction within the platforms and tools that are used by a diverse range of human rights defenders, and for a proactive engagement on ensuring that an inclusive human rights perspective is centred in responses to new challenges at a global level within a multipolar world as well as specific areas of challenge and opportunity such as fake news and authenticity, deepfakes, use of artificial intelligence to find and make sense of information, virtual reality, and how we ensure effective solidarity activism. Solutions and usages in these areas must avoid causing inadvertent as well as deliberate harms to already marginalized people.


2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Andrea Pereira ◽  
Jay Joseph Van Bavel ◽  
Elizabeth Ann Harris

Political misinformation, often called “fake news”, represents a threat to our democracies because it impedes citizens from being appropriately informed. Evidence suggests that fake news spreads more rapidly than real news—especially when it contains political content. The present article tests three competing theoretical accounts that have been proposed to explain the rise and spread of political (fake) news: (1) the ideology hypothesis— people prefer news that bolsters their values and worldviews; (2) the confirmation bias hypothesis—people prefer news that fits their pre-existing stereotypical knowledge; and (3) the political identity hypothesis—people prefer news that allows their political in-group to fulfill certain social goals. We conducted three experiments in which American participants read news that concerned behaviors perpetrated by their political in-group or out-group and measured the extent to which they believed the news (Exp. 1, Exp. 2, Exp. 3), and were willing to share the news on social media (Exp. 2 and 3). Results revealed that Democrats and Republicans were both more likely to believe news about the value-upholding behavior of their in-group or the value-undermining behavior of their out-group, supporting a political identity hypothesis. However, although belief was positively correlated with willingness to share on social media in all conditions, we also found that Republicans were more likely to believe and want to share apolitical fake new. We discuss the implications for theoretical explanations of political beliefs and application of these concepts in in polarized political system.


Author(s):  
Lena Nadarevic ◽  
Rolf Reber ◽  
Anne Josephine Helmecke ◽  
Dilara Köse

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.


2021 ◽  
Vol 7 (2) ◽  
pp. 205630512110197
Author(s):  
Chesca Ka Po Wong ◽  
Runping Zhu ◽  
Richard Krever ◽  
Alfred Siu Choi

While the impact of fake news on viewers, particularly marginalized media users, has been a cause of growing concern, there has been little attention paid to the phenomenon of deliberately “manipulated” news published on social media by mainstream news publishers. Using qualitative content analysis and quantitative survey research, this study showed that consciously biased animated news videos released in the midst of the Umbrella Movement protests in Hong Kong impacted on both the attitudes of students and their participation in the protests. The findings raise concerns over potential use of the format by media owners to promote their preferred ideologies.


2021 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Khudejah Ali ◽  
Cong Li ◽  
Khawaja Zain-ul-abdin ◽  
Muhammad Adeel Zaffar

PurposeAs the epidemic of online fake news is causing major concerns in contexts such as politics and public health, the current study aimed to elucidate the effect of certain “heuristic cues,” or key contextual features, which may increase belief in the credibility and the subsequent sharing of online fake news.Design/methodology/approachThis study employed a 2 (news veracity: real vs fake) × 2 (social endorsements: low Facebook “likes” vs high Facebook “likes”) between-subjects experimental design (N = 239).FindingsThe analysis revealed that a high number of Facebook “likes” accompanying fake news increased the perceived credibility of the material compared to a low number of “likes.” In addition, the mediation results indicated that increased perceptions of news credibility may create a situation in which readers feel that it is necessary to cognitively elaborate on the information present in the news, and this active processing finally leads to sharing.Practical implicationsThe results from this study help explicate what drives increased belief and sharing of fake news and can aid in refining interventions aimed at combating fake news for both communities and organizations.Originality/valueThe current study expands upon existing literature, linking the use of social endorsements to perceived credibility of fake news and information, and sheds light on the causal mechanisms through which people make the decision to share news articles on social media.


2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (2) ◽  
pp. 20
Author(s):  
Evelina Francisco ◽  
Nadira Fardos ◽  
Aakash Bhatt ◽  
Gulhan Bizel

The COVID-19 pandemic and the resulting stay-at-home orders have disrupted all aspects of life globally, most notably our relationship with the internet and social media platforms. People are online more than ever before, working and attending school from home and socializing with friends and family via video conferencing. Marketers and brands have been forced to adapt to a new normal and, as a result, have shifted their brand communication and marketing mix to digital approaches. Hence, this study aims to examine the shift of influencer marketing on Instagram during this period and the possible future implications. By employing an online survey for exploratory research, individuals answered questions addressing their perceptions about the impact of the pandemic, brands and influencers’ relationship, and the overall changes made in marketing strategy.


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