Rumor Retransmission on Twitter: Message Characteristics, user Characteristics and Retransmission Outcomes

Abstract

This paper seeks to depict online rumor retransmission using three main constructs, namely, message characteristics, user characteristics and retransmission outcomes. In particular, it teases retransmission outcomes into volume, immediacy and lifespan of rumor tweets. The dataset was drawn from 322 original Twitter messages which generated some 5,700 retweets about the rumored death of Lee Kuan Yew (LKY). Content analysis and statistical tests were conducted. The results confirm the robustness of the research model. Specifically, rumor message characteristics affect retransmission in terms of volume, immediacy and lifespan. Additionally, user characteristics are positively related to volume and immediacy. Finally, user characteristics have a moderating effect on the relationships between rumor message characteristics and retransmission outcomes. This paper illustrates the applicability of the information diffusion model on online rumor retransmission which hitherto has yet to be attempted. Moreover, it granularizes the concept of online rumor retransmission into three important outcomes, namely, volume, immediacy and lifespan. On the practical front, this paper has implications for organizations seeking to combat rumors.

Message sharing and verification behaviour on social media during the COVID-19 pandemic: a study in the context of India and the USA

“…They find positive emotions perceived appropriateness was highest for WhatsApp as compared to other social media channels (Waterloo et al, 2018). Based on prior literature, the current research posits, the polarity of a message affects its retransmission (Chua and Chen, 2020) such that positive messages will be shared more than negative messages on social media. The following is hypothesised:…”

“…Message polarity invokes emotions that could be positive or negative depending on whether the consequence of the message is positive or negative (Kamins et al, 1997;Chua and Chen, 2020).…”

“…Further, the study attempts to examine the role of message polarity (positive versus negative). Polarity refers to the perceived tone of the message, which may be positive, negative or neutral (Chua and Chen, 2020). The positive messages invoke pleasant feelings in the recipients (e.g.…”

“…outcome of the anticipated benefits). However, the negative messages may instil fear, dismay and aggression in the recipient (Oh and Lee, 2019; Chua and Chen, 2020). According to prior research, the dissemination of negative messages is higher than positive messages (Tsugawa and Ohsaki, 2015).…”

The causes, impacts and countermeasures of COVID-19 “Infodemic”: A systematic review using narrative synthesis

“…Another theme of research took a hybrid perspective to combine the information evaluation as well as beliefs and emotions in characterizing the rumor-sharing behavior. They found that the message or information factors, belief, and emotional factors (e.g., perceived severity and perceived fear) worked synthetically in shaping the intention to share rumors ( Chua and Chen, 2020 ; Laato et al., 2020 ). However, during the crisis, rumor sharing was found not affected by human authenticating behavior due to the time limitation ( Talwar et al., 2020 ), which indicated that people might not have time or did not want to spend time evaluating the rumor systematically in that context.…”