Who to Trust on Social Media: How Opinion Leaders and Seekers Avoid Disinformation and Echo Chambers

Dubois, Elizabeth; Minaeian, Sara; Paquet-Labelle, Ariane; Beaudry, Simon G.

doi:10.1177/2056305120913993

Cited by 52 publications

(47 citation statements)

References 56 publications

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“…From the perspective of the communication object, the users’ emotion types regarding food safety issues varied according to the emotion object. When the object of emotion was a government agency, it was more likely to cause negative comments, which is consistent with previous studies [ 82 , 83 ]. When the emotion object was an opinion leader, positive comments were more easily produced, with some opinion leaders being regarded by users as heroic figures who dare to think and act.…”

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 92%

“…The emotions of government agencies, news media, and industry experts were relatively weak. This may be because they shoulder greater social responsibility, try to actively intervene to dispel negative public emotions with relative calmness [ 83 ], and appear more calm when expressing their opinions. On the contrary, the related enterprises, ordinary users, and opinion leaders were directly affected by food safety incidents therefore, their emotional intensities were strong.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Factors Affecting Social Media Users’ Emotions Regarding Food Safety Issues: Content Analysis of a Debate among Chinese Weibo Users on Genetically Modified Food Security

Xiong

2021

Healthcare

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Social media is gradually building an online information environment regarding health. This environment is filled with many types of users’ emotions regarding food safety, especially negative emotions that can easily cause panic or anger among the population. However, the mechanisms of how it affects users’ emotions have not been fully studied. Therefore, from the perspective of communication and social psychology, this study uses the content analysis method to analyze factors affecting social media users’ emotions regarding food safety issues. In total, 371 tweet samples of genetically modified food security in Sina Weibo (similar to Twitter) were encoded, measured, and analyzed. The major findings are as follows: (1) Tweet account type, tweet topic, and emotion object were all significantly related to emotion type. Tweet depth and objectivity were both positively affected by emotion type, and objectivity had a greater impact. (2) Account type, tweet topic, and emotion object were all significantly related to emotion intensity. When the depths were the same, emotion intensity became stronger with the decrease in objectivity. (3) Account type, tweet topic, emotion object, and emotion type were all significantly related to a user’s emotion communication capacity. Tweet depth, objectivity, and user’s emotion intensity were positively correlated with emotion communication capacity. Positive emotions had stronger communication capacities than negative ones, which is not consistent with previous studies. These findings help us to understand both theoretically and practically the changes and dissemination of user’s emotions in a food safety and health information environment.

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Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 92%

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Factors Affecting Social Media Users’ Emotions Regarding Food Safety Issues: Content Analysis of a Debate among Chinese Weibo Users on Genetically Modified Food Security

Xiong

2021

Healthcare

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“…In general, the inferential statistics regarding the relationship between social factors and the attitudes toward the source of rumors in the media, the social networks, national media and satellite are accused of forming rumors. To put it in similar words, the trust in news media and social media has dwindled (17). Despite the studies in China during this epidemics of SARS (7), Iran's national media have made efforts to present the clear news responsively.…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Public sphere attitudes toward rumor sources on COVID-19 epidemics: Evidence from community perceptions in Iran

Banakar

Sadati

Zarei

et al. 2020

Preprint

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Background Advancements in technology had raised a variety of information circulation methods. In the case of the COVID-19 outbreak, misinformation seems to travel far faster than the outbreak itself. Misleading rumors are double-edged swords arousing fear and panic on the one side and a reduction in commitment to sanitary measures and induction of wrongdoing on the other side, leading to the disruption of the mitigation measures to tackle with the pandemic. This study aimed to evaluate the factors affecting individuals’ attitudes toward rumor-producing media in Iran. Methods An online survey was conducted in Iran in March 2020 on the source of trusted information and misinformation along with individuals’ perception of the cause of misinformation propagation during the COVID-19 pandemic. Results The results showed that social media were considered as the primary rumor source from the perspective of a majority of the participants (59.3%). Lack of a reliable and formal news source was also introduced as the most common cause of a rumor formation by the participants (63.6%). To identify which media is the main source of rumors, the male participants who had high levels of education and were employed by the government proposed foreign media (P < 0.01); however, the male participants aged 30–50 years with middle income level believed that social media (P < 0.01) were producing rumors. In this regard, the high educated participants (P < 0.001), government employees, and middle-income individuals (P < 0.008) believed that national media produced rumors. In addition, the high-educated individuals (P = 0.002) and government employees (P = 0.009) mentioned that national media produced rumors. Conclusion Although these findings were obtained during the first encounter with the Corona epidemic, the authorities immediately introduced the national media as a source of reliable news, which allowed the media and its journalists to reduce the gap between themselves and public sphere. It is suggested that social networks and foreign media be more accountable in epidemics.

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“…These opinion leaders can be particularly influential, especially if they have elevated status such as "celebrity", regardless of their level of expertise (20). Understanding this dynamic is especially important when considering the spread of misinformation and differing approaches to how and when opinion leaders and information seekers validate the information they are sharing or reading, where opinion leaders are more likely to validate and information seekers are less likely (19).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…-Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, Director-General, World Health Organization (5) Nicknamed the COVID-19 "infodemic," researchers have investigated the extent to which misinformation has circulated on social media and the patterns of content of the false messages (6,7). In examining the content of misinformation available on COVID-19, Baines et al (2020) called the COVID- 19 infodemic "unprecedented in its size and velocity" (6). Further, Broniatowski et al (2020) attempted to assess the quality of the information spread related to COVID-19, finding that most of the information could not be assessed because the amount of information originating on social media and other sources was too difficult to verify (8).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Spread and sources of information and misinformation about COVID-19 early during the pandemic in a U.S. national cohort study

Westmoreland

Berry

Zimba

et al. 2021

Preprint

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Background: Early in the pandemic, misinformation about COVID-19 was spread on social media. The purpose of this study was to describe trusted sources of COVID-19 information and claims seen and believed about COVID-19 early in the pandemic among U.S. adults. Then, we assessed the impact of believing such claims on engaging in personal protective actions (PPA). Methods: We used baseline data from the CHASING COVID Cohort (n = 7,070) collected March 28, 2020 to April 20, 2020 to describe trusted sources of COVID-19 information as well as claims circulating on social media that had been seen and believed. We used Poisson regression to determine the association of believing certain claims with engaging in a higher number of PPA. Results: The top three trusted sources of COVID-19 information were the CDC (67.9%), the WHO (53.7%), and State Health Departments (53.0%). Several COVID-19 claims circulated on social media had been seen, e.g., that the virus was created in a laboratory (54.8%). Moreover, substantial proportions of participants indicated agreement with some of these claims. In multivariable regression, we found that belief in certain claims was associated with engaging in a higher number of PPA. For example, believing that paper masks would prevent transmission of the virus was associated with engaging in a higher number of protective actions (β = 0.02, 95% CI: 0.004 - 0.046). Conclusions: Results suggest the need for public health leadership on social media platforms to combat misinformation and supports social media as a tool to further public health interventions.

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Who to Trust on Social Media: How Opinion Leaders and Seekers Avoid Disinformation and Echo Chambers

Cited by 52 publications

References 56 publications

Factors Affecting Social Media Users’ Emotions Regarding Food Safety Issues: Content Analysis of a Debate among Chinese Weibo Users on Genetically Modified Food Security

Factors Affecting Social Media Users’ Emotions Regarding Food Safety Issues: Content Analysis of a Debate among Chinese Weibo Users on Genetically Modified Food Security

Public sphere attitudes toward rumor sources on COVID-19 epidemics: Evidence from community perceptions in Iran

Spread and sources of information and misinformation about COVID-19 early during the pandemic in a U.S. national cohort study

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