Falling for fake news: investigating the consumption of news via social mediaTools Flintham, Martin and Karner, Christian and Creswick, Helen and Bachour, Khaled and Gupta, Neha and Moran, Stuart (2018) Falling for fake news: investigating the consumption of news via social media. In: ACM CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems 2018, 21-26 April 2018, Montreal, Canada.
AbstractIn the so called ‘post-truth’ era, characterized by a loss of public trust in various institutions, and the rise of ‘fake news’ disseminated via the internet and social media, individuals may face uncertainty about the veracity of information available, whether it be satire or malicious hoax. We investigate attitudes to news delivered by social media, and subsequent verification strategies applied, or not applied, by individuals. A survey reveals that two thirds of respondents regularly consumed news via Facebook, and that one third had at some point come across fake news that they initially believed to be true. An analysis task involving news presented via Facebook reveals a diverse range of judgement forming strategies, with participants relying on personal judgements as to plausibility and scepticism around sources and journalistic style. This reflects a shift away from traditional methods of accessing the news, and highlights the difficulties in combating the spread of fake news.
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