scholarly journals Exploratory Study on Audience Perception of Information Credibility on Media Platforms in Ghana

2021 ◽  
Vol 1 (1) ◽  
pp. 16-27
Author(s):  
Acquaye P. ◽  
Ofosu-Boateng I.

Using a focus group discussion, this study sought to understand how media audiences perceive information in the media environment in Ghana. The study found out that the prevalence of fake news on social media platforms serves as a disincentive to consumers of media messages from giving attention to information from some media platforms. Legacy media, radio and television, for many of the participants, present credible information on its platform with the belief that rigorous scrutiny is done by the media organisation before information is shared with their audiences on air. Though participants in the group discussions are often dismissive of media information they have doubts about, they occasionally, not routinely, verify information from news portals they deem credible. Participants also rely on their intuition to assess the truthfulness or otherwise of a story.

2018 ◽  
Vol 2 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Ivan Valchanov ◽  

The development of the Internet and social media and networks as a media environment and communication channels combined with the specificity of the journalistic profession in the online environment are a factor which contributes to the emergence and proliferation of fake news. The lack of reliable fact checking by the media and the fast news consumption by the public lead to mass disinformation about certain issues or subjects. The current paper examines fake news from several points of view and describes the models of their use – as harmless jokes, as lack of journalistic competence or professionalism and as means of manipulation and intentional misleading of public opinion. The attempts of big media corporations to fight fake news are also described.


Author(s):  
Janet Aver Adikpo

Today, the media environment has traversed several phases of technological advancements and as a result, there is a shift in the production and consumption of news. This chapter conceived fake news within the milieu of influencing information spread in the society, especially on the cyberspace. Using the hierarchy of influence model trajectory with fake news, it was established that it has become almost impossible to sustain trust and credibility through individual influences on online news content. The primary reason is that journalists are constrained by professional ethics, organizational routines, and ownership influence. Rather than verify facts and offer supporting claims, online users without professional orientation engage in a reproducing information indiscreetly. The chapter recommends that ethics be reconsidered as a means to recreate and imbibe journalistic values that will contend with the fake news pandemic.


In medias res ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 10 (18) ◽  
pp. 2803-2811
Author(s):  
Ivana Marasović Šušnjara ◽  
Maja Vejić

All media have been flooded with news related to the COVID-19 pandemic. Top scientists have been addressing the public more frequently than ever before. In addition to positive attitudes, there have also been negative ones. In the midst of the pandemic, information about health systems that cannot respond adequately, a large number of deaths, and the lack of vaccines provoked a number of unwanted reactions, such as fear and associated disorders. Bad news kept coming. They were followed by conspiracy theories. Certain groups set out to find information they wanted to accept as true on various social networks. Should the media be allowed to inform about health without check, should they be allowed to pass on “fake news” in the domain of illness and health, or even manipulate information? They shouldn’t? In order to minimize the negative impacts, there should be mutual responsibility of experts and the media in presenting health-related topics and in disseminating useful and credible information, whereby the media literacy of the end users is indispensable.


Subject 'Fake news' and US politics. Significance Throughout his presidency and the campaign that preceded it, Donald Trump has attacked news media that broadcast or write critical coverage of him and his circle. His habitual denial of unfavourable reports has established ‘fake news’, ‘alternative facts’ and ‘post-truth’ in the political lexicon. In contrast to Trump’s shifting positions on policy questions, the president’s animus for the media has been one of the constant aspects of his presidency. Impacts Trump’s central focus on his personal legitimacy will see him increase attacks on the media as difficulties mount. Deregulation will concentrate corporate ownership of local and national media, exacerbating the polarisation of news. Increased regulation of social media platforms is unlikely to restore consumer trust. The traditional media will probably cater to concentrated pockets of affluent and educated consumers.


2020 ◽  
Vol 97 (2) ◽  
pp. 416-434
Author(s):  
Stephanie Edgerly ◽  
Emily K. Vraga

A by-product of today’s hybrid media system is that genres—once uniformly defined and enforced—are now murky and contested. We develop the concept of news-ness, defined as the extent to which audiences characterize specific content as news, to capture how audiences understand and process media messages. In this article, we (a) ground the concept of news-ness within research on media genres, journalism practices, and audience studies, (b) develop a theoretical model that identifies the factors that influence news-ness and its outcomes, and (c) situate news-ness within discussions about fake news, partisan motivated reasoning, and comparative studies of media systems.


Author(s):  
Yochai Benkler ◽  
Robert Faris ◽  
Hal Roberts

This chapter examines three main threats to American democracy related to Facebook: Facebook microtargeting and dark ads, behavioral manipulation by Cambridge Analytica, and political clickbait factories. The chapter considers the effectiveness of psychographically microtargeted advertising and the question of exposure to “fake news” on Facebook during the months leading up to the 2016 presidential election. The chapter explains why behaviorally informed, microtargeted dark ads are an important novel threat to democratic practice independent of the overall architecture of the media environment, even as it cautions that there is no evidence to support this theory. It also argues that both the Cambridge Analytica and political clickbait threats were overstated.


2021 ◽  
pp. 107769902098478
Author(s):  
Hong Tien Vu ◽  
Magdalena Saldaña

This study examines how newsroom work in the United States has changed in response to some of the latest developments in the news media environment. Using nationally representative survey data, we explore what professional routines American journalists have adopted to avoid spreading or being accused of publishing misinformation. Findings suggest that journalists have added new or intensified practices to increase accountability and transparency. In addition, role conceptions, perception of fake news, and responsibility for social media audiences impact the adoption of such practices. Journalists are more likely to embrace transparency than accountability, suggesting the emergence of new journalistic norms in today’s newsrooms.


2019 ◽  
Vol 74 (2) ◽  
pp. 158-170 ◽  
Author(s):  
Harikrishnan Bhaskaran ◽  
Harsh Mishra ◽  
Pradeep Nair

The media ecosystem of the post-truth era is shaped by several unprecedented elements—the pitfalls of the personalized/networked media, the cherry picking tendencies of news producers in an attention economy, the propagandist power-elite, and the gullible support of the semi-literate media audience. These post-truth realities also call for new approaches in journalism education to address phenomena like fake news. In this backdrop, this study examines the existing issues in Indian journalism training based on a thematic analysis of focus group discussions with graduate students of journalism at an Indian university about their perception of fake news. It recommends pedagogical approaches to focus on improving journalistic agency in students to deal with fake news situations.


2018 ◽  
Vol 7 (2) ◽  
pp. 515 ◽  
Author(s):  
Fevzi Kasap ◽  
Ayhan Dolunay ◽  
Ali Murat Mırçık

<p><strong>Abstract</strong></p><p>Globalization affects the lives of individuals by showing themselves in many areas. The notion of globalization, which is particularly influential in the field of economy, politics and culture, has led to change and transformation through important influences both in the media and in the news cycle. In this context, with the globalization of the media, attempts have been made to create a uniform culture all over the world. Movies, TV programs, music video clips, have also changed in support of this argument. The global news cycle, which is in the hands of international agencies, causes an imbalance in the global flow as it is published due to the views of western imperialism of a certain capital. In this context, "news" is only in the hands of certain agencies; the dominance is maintained. In particular, although they are working to correct them on the effects of the global media and on the imbalances in the news cycle, they have not yet reached a sufficient level. Because of the international cycle of communication, the global media environment is in the hands of certain capitalists, imbalances are also felt in the environment. In this study, it will be discussed how the globalization phenomenon, especially the reflection of the media, and as a result, the news and other visual media messages affect the target audience. Following the identification of the situation, this structure will be referred to the work that can be described as "contradictions" and this particular emphasis on local / new media actors that may create alternatives will be addressed.</p><p><strong>Öz</strong></p><p>Küreselleşme, pek çok alanda kendini göstererek, bireylerin yaşamlarını etkilemektedir. Özellikle ekonomi, siyaset ve kültür alanında etkili olan küreselleşme kavramı, medyada ve haber döngüsünde de önemli etkileri vasıtasıyla değişim ve dönüşüme yol açmıştır. Buna kapsamda, medyanın küreselleşmesiyle birlikte, tüm dünya üzerinde tek tip bir kültür oluşturulması girişimleri de söz konusu olmuştur. Filmler, tv programları, müzik klipleri de bu savı destekler nitelikte değişimler göstermiştir. Uluslararası ajansların elinde olan küresel haber döngüsü ise belli bir sermayeye ait batı emperyalizmi görüşlerine bağlı olarak yayınlandığı için küresel akışta bir dengesizliğe sebep olmaktadır. Bu kapsamda, “haber” sadece belli ajansların elinde olup; söz konusu hakimiyet sürdürülmektedir. Özellikle, küresel medyanın etkilerinde ve haber döngüsündeki dengesizlikler üzerinde bunları düzeltmeye yönelik çalışmalar olsa da, henüz yeterli düzeye erişilememiştir. İletişimdeki uluslararası döngü, küresel medya ortamı belli sermayelerin elinde olduğu için ortamda dengesizlikler de kendini hissettirmektedir. Bu çalışmada küreselleşme olgusunun özellikle medyaya yansımaları ve bunun sonucunda haberlerin ve diğer görsel medya iletilerinin hedef kitleyi nasıl etkileyip, yönlendirdiği tartışılacak; durum tespiti ardından, bu yapıya “karşı çıkışlar” olarak nitelenebilecek çalışmalara değinilecek ve  alternatif oluşturabilecek yerel/yeni medya aktörlerinin bu husustaki önemi ele alınacaktır.</p>


2018 ◽  
Vol 2 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Maya Vasileva

The paper presents the theoretical and research aspects of media interrelations among the phenomena of post-truth, fake news, populist statements, and the use of alternative facts in political communication. It conducts a comparative analysis of these concepts and analyzes illustrative examples from the media environment in which the terms operate in the same information discourse. The main focus is on two key academic empirical studies whose theoretical and empirical scholarly approaches point to the main thesis of this paper – that post-truth and fake news create an emotional context of information perception and that this is the basis on which consumers and voters shape their behavior, reactions, understandings and views.


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