A quasi experiment on how the field of librarianship can help in combating fake news

This study experimented how fake news could be combated through social media literacy skills training. A quasi-experiment in one public university's library was conducted and 470 participants were randomly split into equal parts to form a control and experiment group. The respondents in the experiment group were exposed to 8 weeks of training to improve their social media literacy skills to fight fake news. We realised that social media literacy skills training is effective in increasing social media knowledge, users' recognition of fake news, tendency to verify information and reduce the inclination to share false news. Implications for research and practice were discussed.     

How college students evaluate and share “fake news” stories

The spread of “fake news” stories online has become a pressing concern in the United States and around the world in recent years. Social media platforms enable the rapid spread of such misinformation and also make evaluating the credibility of online information more difficult. Since college students are frequent users of social media, they are particularly likely to be exposed to fake news. A survey was conducted with 63 undergraduate students in which they identified and evaluated examples of both fake and real news stories and reported their associated information behaviors. Results showed correlations between accurate identification of fake news stories and specific critical evaluation behaviors and strategies. However, students were unable to accurately evaluate their own skills, and their willingness to share fake news stories on social media was not related to accurate identifications or evaluations of trustworthiness. This study contributes to the understanding of not just how accurately students evaluate fake news stories, but of the specific information-seeking behaviors and critical evaluation strategies that are associated with accurate identifications and evaluations and with willingness to share news stories on social media. Implications for educators and directions for future research are discussed.     

Information literacy and fake news: How the field of librarianship can help combat the epidemic of fake news

This paper studies how the field of librarianship can help counteract the phenomenon of fake news and misinformation. A literature review was conducted to identify the current themes, patterns, correlations and gaps within the existing literature on fake news, information literacy and librarianship. Findings centre on defining fake news, analysing contemporary and emerging information literacy frameworks, and outlining the current efforts and initiatives exercised by libraries to refute the spread of fake news and educate communities on how to navigate through an era of untruth and disinformation. The paper outlines effective initiatives developed by those within the Library and Information Systems (LIS) profession while highlighting considerations and recommendations as to how librarians can continue to enhance their role in the digital age and make successful contributions to the professional field.     

Measuring the effect of political alignment,platforms, and fake news consumption on voter concern for election processes

Fake news, propagated on social media platforms, is regularly used as a tool to influence political beliefs. In this paper, we investigate the impact of fake news on perceptions of election processes by drawing on the theory of motivated reasoning. We use survey data on partisan alignment, news consumption habits, and voting methods collected before and after the 2020 United States general election. Our pre-election results indicated that political alignment and the type of news a voter consumes influences their trust perceptions of election processes. These findings were replicated in the post-election results. We also found that Facebook users were more likely to consume fake and hyper-partisan news, whereas people who directly navigate to news websites consume primarily mainstream news sources. Implications for research and policy are discussed along with opportunities for future research on the impacts of fake news.     

Fake News

The crisis in Ukraine has accentuated the position of Russian television as the government’s strongest asset in its information warfare. The internet, however, allows other players to challenge the Kremlin’s narrative by providing counter-narratives and debunking distorted information and fake images. Accounting for the new media ecology—through which strategic narratives are created and interpreted, this article scrutinizes the narratives of allegedly fake news on Channel One, perceiving the fabricated stories as extreme projections of Russia’s strategic narratives, and the attempts of the Ukrainian fact-checking website Stopfake.org to counter the Russian narrative by refuting misinformation and exposing misleading images about Ukraine. Secondly, it analyses how Twitter users judged the veracity of these news stories and contributed to the perpetuation of strategic narratives.     

Academic library guides for tackling fake news: A content analysis

Built on a pilot study, this study examined how librarians understand fake news and the specific methods or strategies they suggest for detecting fake news by analyzing their guides from academic libraries. A content analysis regarding a total of 21 institutional guides was conducted. The major findings include the following: 1) in the librarians' guides stating their definition of fake news, the two elements of falsity and the intention to mislead were explicitly stated. The other element of bias, however, was presented in only some guides. 2) The sub-elements of clickbait, a decontextualized content and omitted information were inconsistently or barely presented across these guides. 3) Only two institutional libraries put forth the notion of fact in relation to fake news in their guides. 4) All of the guides suggested checklist approaches to detecting fake news or evaluating news sources. Finally, 5) librarians acknowledge the influence of human biases on consuming news. However, psychological factors are minimally presented in most of the guides. This study provides a few suggestions. First, librarians must further clarify the term fake news so that it reflects its multiple layers. Second, librarians must incorporate new strategies, such as lateral reading and click restraints, in combination with a few prioritized elements of a checklist into their guides regarding detecting fake news. Finally, librarians must pay attention to psychological factors more when interpreting facts in their strategies about news sources and fake news.     

Does political extremity harm the ability to identify online information validity? Testing the impact of polarisation through online experiments

Ideological polarisation has drawn wide attention from both the general public and researchers. It is frequently argued that under the proliferation of ideological polarisation, echo chambers may be formed while people inside the echo chambers may be less willing to accept alternative political viewpoints and more likely to fall into fake news and online misinformation. To obtain more empirical evidence, we conducted an online experiment that explored the relationship between one's position in the political spectrum and his/her capabilities of identifying political misinformation, as well as the information consumption habits that may help identify online misinformation. While we statistically validated some information consumption habits that can help to identify political misinformation, it was unexpected that political extremists may be indeed more capable of identifying the validity of news and online information. Based on our findings, we also provided a range of theoretical and practical implications.     

How Journalists and Social Media Users Perceive Online Fact-Checking and Verification Services

While services for fact-checking and verification to counter fake news in social media have increased, little research has investigated how journalists and the public perceive such services. This study reflects the outcomes of REVEAL, a three-year European Union research project investigating the use and impact of services for fact-checking and verification. Based on interviews with 32 young journalists and content analysis of social media users’ online conversations, we contribute new knowledge about the ways that journalists and social media users perceive online fact-checking and verification services. The findings suggest that, while young journalists were largely unfamiliar with or ambivalent about such services, they judged them as potentially useful in the investigative journalistic process. Yet, they were unwilling to rely exclusively on these tools for fact-checking and verification. A comparison of journalists’ perceptions with those of social media users reveals social media users are similarly ambivalent. Some accentuated the usefulness of such services, while others expressed strong distrust. However, the journalists displayed a more nuanced perspective, both seeing these services as potentially useful and being reluctant to blindly trust a single service. Design strategies to make online fact-checking and verification services more useful and trustworthy are suggested.     

Reinforcing attitudes in a gatewatching news era: Individual-level antecedents to sharing fact-checks on social media

Despite the prevalence of fact-checking, little is known about who posts fact-checks online. Based upon a content analysis of Facebook and Twitter digital trace data and a linked online survey (N?=?783), this study reveals that sharing fact-checks in political conversations on social media is linked to age, ideology, and political behaviors. Moreover, an individual’s need for orientation (NFO) is an even stronger predictor of sharing a fact-check than ideological intensity or relevance, alone, and also influences the type of fact-check format (with or without a rating scale) that is shared. Finally, participants generally shared fact-checks to reinforce their existing attitudes. Consequently, concerns over the effects of fact-checking should move beyond a limited-effects approach (e.g., changing attitudes) to also include reinforcing accurate beliefs.     

Fake news alerts: Teaching news literacy skills in a meme world

ABSTRACT

Thirty years ago, fake news was resigned to tabloids at the grocery store. Now, fake news is often more convincing than real news. Many library users lack the appropriate skills to discern between what is real and what is not, and many more get their information from social media memes. When memes are more effective than actual news, what can librarians do to teach information literacy? Librarians can use memes to promote information literacy; they can even create their own!     

After the spillover effect: news flows and power relations in Chinese mainstream media

Through a case study on the news flow of an online protest in China, this study explores how the power relations among the mainstream media affect, and are affected by, the spillover effect of news. Even though the Internet does serve as a catalyst to initiate alternative voices that otherwise wouldn't be heard in the established media, the results reveal that the power structure inherent in the mainstream media (particularly within their online versions) such as bureaucratic ranks and institutional ties with party organs, plays a significant role in shaping the trajectory of news flow and media framing strategies. The Internet compensates for the disadvantage of the lower-level media that are short of political resources, while the higher-level media tend to rely on the political capital to exercise their influence. At the same time, the media with more political resources have become increasingly intrepid in challenging the state. Such a dynamic takes place in the context of the changing state-media relations that have seen the authoritarian state shift its information control from a totalitarian mode to a practical one, even though the latter may open up a space for flow of information that can sometimes undermine state power.     

Young adults and everyday-life information: The role of news media

There is a paucity of research examining the everyday-life information seeking of young people, especially investigating the role that the news media has in providing information to young people for use in their everyday lives. A qualitative, interpretivist approach is adopted, involving 34 students, ages 18 to 25, from an Australian university. First, 20 students were interviewed about their news seeking (including topics and sources). Then 14 students participated in verbal protocol analysis, which involved a series of tasks concerning online and print newspapers. Lastly, students were interviewed about how they sought everyday-life information and whether they thought that they had incidentally acquired or encountered information on everyday-life topics in online or print newspapers in the recent past. Findings indicated that, contrary to expectations, traditional print media still played a role for young people, and social media were perceived as important for communication with friends, rather than for news gathering. Purposeful information seeking was more likely to occur online, but both print and online newspapers retained an incidental role in providing information to students for their everyday lives. Participants used a range of media to suit their particular needs and purposes. Thus, access to a wide variety of sources is important for everyday-life information seeking (ELIS) by young people.     

Priming and Fake News: The Effects of Elite Discourse on Evaluations of News Media

Fake news has become a prominent topic of public discussion, particularly among elites. Recent research has explored the prevalence of fake news during the 2016 election cycle and possible effects on electoral outcomes. This scholarship has not yet considered how elite discourse surrounding fake news may influence individual perceptions of real news. Through an experiment, this study explores the effects of elite discourse about fake news on the public’s evaluation of news media. Results show that exposure to elite discourse about fake news leads to lower levels of trust in media and less accurate identification of real news. Therefore, frequent discussion of fake news may affect whether individuals trust news media and the standards with which they evaluate it. This discourse may also prompt the dissemination of false information, particularly when fake news is discussed by elites without context and caution.     

Teaching news media practices in bibliographic instruction classes: A strategy involving framing and sourcing theory

This article urges BI librarians to develop programs in mass media news sources, and suggests how the theory of news framing and sourcing may be used to develop critical thinking skills. Such programs could be particularly useful in serving multicultural populations. Coverage of the same two topics by mainstream corporate news sources and independent non-corporate sources is compared. Differences in coverage are used to show how decisions about framing and sourcing serve an ideological agenda that is not sensitive to multicultural viewpoints. Corporate news sources should be supplemented by sources from non-corporate titles to achieve complete understanding of any topic.     

Multiple issue publics in the high-choice media environment: media use,online activity,and political knowledge

This study examines the role of membership in multiple issue publics by understanding its relationship to media use, online activity, and political knowledge. Using data from Taiwan's 2008 Social Change Survey, the study shows that members of multiple issue publics was positively associated with television watching, political talk show watching, and online news reading. In addition, they were found to engage in specific online activities, including information browsing, information exchanging, information gathering, taking part in forum discussions, and blogging. Therefore, members of multiple issue publics tend to use media with a high level of selectivity and engage in online activities that allow them to express opinions, gain knowledge, or discuss issues with others. A curvilinear relationship was explored and found between multiple issue-public membership and general political knowledge. This demonstrates that individuals' ability to process information may not extend beyond certain boundaries, no matter how many issue publics individuals are involved in.     

Fake News as a Critical Incident in Journalism

This study examines how American newspapers made sense of the issue of fake news. By analysing newspaper editorials and considering the problem of fake news as a critical incident confronting journalism, this study found that news organizations in the US recognize fake news as a social problem while acknowledging the challenge in defining it. They generally considered fake news as a social media phenomenon thriving on political polarization driven by mostly ideological, but sometimes also financial, motivations. Therefore, they assigned blame for the rise of fake news to the current political environment, to technological platforms Google and Facebook, and to audiences.     

Where populist citizens get the news: An investigation of news audience polarization along populist attitudes in 11 countries

This article presents a secondary analysis of two multi-national cross-sectional surveys conducted in 2015 (11 countries, N?=?10,570) and 2017 (4 countries, N?=?2165) to examine the relationship between populist attitudes and media use. The results indicate that populist citizens are more likely to consume news than non-populist citizens. Specifically, populist citizens exhibit a preference for commercial television (TV) news, as well as a tendency to read tabloid newspapers. While they use fewer quality newspapers, public TV news are not systematically avoided. Regarding the online news environment, populist citizens prefer Facebook over Twitter as a source of political information. This selective pattern will be discussed in light of the debates on news audience polarization and political polarization.     

A Critique of Internet Polls as Symbolic Representation and Pseudo-Events

The Internet continues to grow as an information and entertainment medium. Internet growth has implications for the news industry. Twenty-four hour news networks such as CNN and MSNBC regularly encourage viewers of their television programs to visit their Web sites. While visiting news Web sites, visitors are invited to participate in opinion polls. Unfortunately, these online opinion polls are not scientific and have little real news value. In spite of these limitations, news Web sites' Internet polls are often treated as serious topics in broadcast news discussions. This article examines media organizations' Internet online polls and critiques them as instances of symbolic representation and pseudo-events that have arisen largely out of the integration of print, broadcast, and Internet media.     

Negotiating fragmented women's news: state,market and feminism in contemporary Chinese media

This study aims to explain the reasons for the transformation of women's news in contemporary China. It concludes that in comparison with women news's in the Maoist period, present-day women's news is represented in a fragmented way. This article analyses the differences among the individual, professional, and institutional aspects in news production, while emphasizing the complicated interaction among feminism, state, and market to illuminate the reasons behind women's news transformation. Due to the immanent masculinity of both state and market, feminism in China has to face a state–market complex, that is, double pressure. Comparing with state and market, the influence from feminism to journalism is quite weak and there is a long way to go before feminism realizes its own agenda for media transformation.     

First-level and second-level intermedia agenda-setting among major news websites

This study investigates the extent to which major news websites influence one another's issue agendas and attribute agendas on main posting areas. To contribute to the generalization of intermedia agenda-setting effects to online media in other countries, this study chooses the South Korean major news websites, which are Joins.com, Chosun.com, Donga.com (major online newspapers) and online Yonhap News Agency. A cross-lagged panel design and partial correlations reveal that Chosun.com and Donga.com influence issue agendas of the online wire service. There is no influence over issue agendas between major online newspapers. In terms of attribute agendas, Chosun.com and Donga.com influence Joins.com, and Chosun.com affects the online wire service.