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From Dark to Light: The Many Shades of Sharing Misinformation Online
[journal article]
Abstract 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... view more
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.... view less
Keywords
social media; online media; social network; false report; disinformation; motivation; credibility
Classification
Interactive, electronic Media
Free Keywords
fake news; misinformation; news sharing
Document language
English
Publication Year
2021
Page/Pages
p. 134-143
Journal
Media and Communication, 9 (2021) 1
Issue topic
Dark Participation in Online Communication: The World of the Wicked Web
ISSN
2183-2439
Status
Published Version; peer reviewed