scholarly journals NudgeCred: Supporting News Credibility Assessment on Social Media Through Nudges

2021 ◽  
Vol 5 (CSCW2) ◽  
pp. 1-30
Author(s):  
Md Momen Bhuiyan ◽  
Michael Horning ◽  
Sang Won Lee ◽  
Tanushree Mitra
2020 ◽  
Vol 4 (CSCW2) ◽  
pp. 1-26
Author(s):  
Md Momen Bhuiyan ◽  
Amy X. Zhang ◽  
Connie Moon Sehat ◽  
Tanushree Mitra

Journalism ◽  
2021 ◽  
pp. 146488492110627
Author(s):  
Christian Staal Bruun Overgaard

An informed electorate is vital for a well-functioning democracy. Yet many citizens intentionally avoid the news because it evokes negative feelings of disempowerment and distrust. This study ( n = 270) investigated how social media exposure to a new journalistic approach, constructive journalism, influences news consumers. The results showed that constructive social media posts, as compared to negative posts, led to higher levels of positive affect, self-efficacy, and perceived news credibility. In line with the broaden-and-build theory of positive emotions, the effects on self-efficacy and news credibility were mediated by positive affect. A similar mediating role was found for negative affect, counter to the theoretical expectations. These findings shed new light on the broaden-and-build theory, suggesting parts of it generalize to the context of news exposure on social media. The findings also suggest that constructive journalism may be an effective way to mitigate some of the main drivers of news avoidance in the 21st century.


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.


2020 ◽  
pp. 009365022092132
Author(s):  
Mufan Luo ◽  
Jeffrey T. Hancock ◽  
David M. Markowitz

This article focuses on message credibility and detection accuracy of fake and real news as represented on social media. We developed a deception detection paradigm for news headlines and conducted two online experiments to examine the extent to which people (1) perceive news headlines as credible, and (2) accurately distinguish fake and real news across three general topics (i.e., politics, science, and health). Both studies revealed that people often judged news headlines as fake, suggesting a deception-bias for news in social media. Across studies, we observed an average detection accuracy of approximately 51%, a level consistent with most research using this deception detection paradigm with equal lie-truth base-rates. Study 2 evaluated the effects of endorsement cues in social media (e.g., Facebook likes) on message credibility and detection accuracy. Results showed that headlines associated with a high number of Facebook likes increased credibility, thereby enhancing detection accuracy for real news but undermining accuracy for fake news. These studies introduce truth-default theory to the context of news credibility and advance our understanding of how biased processing of news information can impact detection accuracy with social media endorsement cues.


2019 ◽  
Vol 2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Eleni A. Kyza ◽  
Christiana Varda

As access to news is increasingly mediated through social media platforms, there are rising concerns for citizens’ ability to evaluate online information and detect potentially misleading items. While many studies have reported on how people assess the credibility of information, there are few reports on processes related to evaluating information online and people’s decision to trust and share the information with others. This paper reports on the first part of a three-phase study which aimed to gain an in-depth understanding of citizens’ practices and needs in assessing the credibility of information shared online and co-create solutions to address this problem. Data were collected from three European countries, through a survey on misinformation perceptions, focus groups, follow-up individual interviews, and co-creation activities with three stakeholder groups. The data were analyzed qualitatively, using, primarily, a grounded theory approach. Results from the citizens’ stakeholder group indicate that personal biases, emotions, time constraints, and lack of supporting technologies impacts the credibility assessment of online news. Study participants also discussed the need for increased media literacy actions, especially in youth. Based on preliminary findings we argue that we need a diversified approach to support citizens’ resilience against the spread of misinformation.


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