From Dark to Light: The Many Shades of Sharing Misinformation Online
Research typically presumes that people believe misinformation and propagate it through their social networks. Yet, a wide range of motivations for sharing misinformation might impact its spread, as well as people’s belief of it. By examining research on motivations for sharing news information gene...
| Main Authors: | , , , , |
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
| Published: |
Cogitatio
2021-02-01
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| Series: | Media and Communication |
| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | https://www.cogitatiopress.com/mediaandcommunication/article/view/3409 |
| _version_ | 1818178863539159040 |
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| author | Miriam J. Metzger Andrew J. Flanagin Paul Mena Shan Jiang Christo Wilson |
| author_facet | Miriam J. Metzger Andrew J. Flanagin Paul Mena Shan Jiang Christo Wilson |
| author_sort | Miriam J. Metzger |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | Research typically presumes that people believe misinformation and propagate it through their social networks. Yet, a wide range of motivations for sharing misinformation might impact its spread, as well as people’s belief of it. By examining research on motivations for sharing news information generally, and misinformation specifically, we derive a range of motivations that broaden current understandings of the sharing of misinformation to include factors that may to some extent mitigate the presumed dangers of misinformation for society. To illustrate the utility of our viewpoint we report data from a preliminary study of people’s dis/belief reactions to misinformation shared on social media using natural language processing. Analyses of over 2,5 million comments demonstrate that misinformation on social media is often disbelieved. These insights are leveraged to propose directions for future research that incorporate a more inclusive understanding of the various motivations and strategies for sharing misinformation socially in large-scale online networks. |
| first_indexed | 2024-12-11T20:54:44Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-40cc17bf8f824733b1e037c4765f0cee |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 2183-2439 |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-12-11T20:54:44Z |
| publishDate | 2021-02-01 |
| publisher | Cogitatio |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Media and Communication |
| spelling | doaj.art-40cc17bf8f824733b1e037c4765f0cee2022-12-22T00:51:08ZengCogitatioMedia and Communication2183-24392021-02-019113414310.17645/mac.v9i1.34091823From Dark to Light: The Many Shades of Sharing Misinformation OnlineMiriam J. Metzger0Andrew J. Flanagin1Paul Mena2Shan Jiang3Christo Wilson4Department of Communication, University of California, USADepartment of Communication, University of California, USAWriting Program, University of California, USAKhoury College of Computer Sciences, Northeastern University, USAKhoury College of Computer Sciences, Northeastern University, USAResearch typically presumes that people believe misinformation and propagate it through their social networks. Yet, a wide range of motivations for sharing misinformation might impact its spread, as well as people’s belief of it. By examining research on motivations for sharing news information generally, and misinformation specifically, we derive a range of motivations that broaden current understandings of the sharing of misinformation to include factors that may to some extent mitigate the presumed dangers of misinformation for society. To illustrate the utility of our viewpoint we report data from a preliminary study of people’s dis/belief reactions to misinformation shared on social media using natural language processing. Analyses of over 2,5 million comments demonstrate that misinformation on social media is often disbelieved. These insights are leveraged to propose directions for future research that incorporate a more inclusive understanding of the various motivations and strategies for sharing misinformation socially in large-scale online networks.https://www.cogitatiopress.com/mediaandcommunication/article/view/3409credibilityfake newsmisinformationnews sharing |
| spellingShingle | Miriam J. Metzger Andrew J. Flanagin Paul Mena Shan Jiang Christo Wilson From Dark to Light: The Many Shades of Sharing Misinformation Online Media and Communication credibility fake news misinformation news sharing |
| title | From Dark to Light: The Many Shades of Sharing Misinformation Online |
| title_full | From Dark to Light: The Many Shades of Sharing Misinformation Online |
| title_fullStr | From Dark to Light: The Many Shades of Sharing Misinformation Online |
| title_full_unstemmed | From Dark to Light: The Many Shades of Sharing Misinformation Online |
| title_short | From Dark to Light: The Many Shades of Sharing Misinformation Online |
| title_sort | from dark to light the many shades of sharing misinformation online |
| topic | credibility fake news misinformation news sharing |
| url | https://www.cogitatiopress.com/mediaandcommunication/article/view/3409 |
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