Search

The COVID-19 pandemic has caused uncertainty in society and thus created a breeding ground for fake news. In social media in particular, targeted disinformation was and is practiced in order to emotionalize, confuse and manipulate users to achieve political and economic goals. In keeping with its educational and orienting function and in order to curb the spread of fake news, the established news magazine DER SPIEGEL carries out so-called fact checks and publishes the results on the social network Instagram. Although the text type "fact check" is considered young and poorly defined, its importance in socially uncertain times and its potential for a quick, safe and educational function are clear. In order to approach the text type "fact check" specifically in a social media environment, a selected corpus of 12 Instagram posts from @spiegelmagazin in the period between March and May 2020 will be examined using a multimodal, qualitative discourse analysis. Taking an inductive perspective, we ask which strategic text-image strategies can be found in the Instagram posts, which communicative functions are fulfilled and which overarching intentions should be taken into account. The study itself is intended to offer a first approach to the text type "fact check" and open the view to further, relevant questions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The objective of this research was to design a method to assign topics to claims debunked by fact-checking agencies. During the fact-checking process, access to more structured knowledge is necessary; therefore, we aim to describe topics with semantic vocabulary. Classification of topics should go beyond simple connotations like instance-class and rather reflect broader phenomena that are recognized by fact checkers. The assignment of semantic entities is also crucial for the automatic verification of facts using the underlying knowledge graphs. Our method is based on sentence embeddings, various clustering methods (HDBSCAN, UMAP, K-means), semantic entity matching, and terms importance assessment based on TF-IDF. We represent our topics in semantic space using Wikidata Q-ids, DBpedia, Wikipedia topics, YAGO, and other relevant ontologies. Such an approach based on semantic entities also supports hierarchical navigation within topics. For evaluation, we compare topic modeling results with claims already tagged by fact checkers. The work presented in this paper is useful for researchers and practitioners interested in semantic topic modeling of fake news narratives. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We present the last part of this special issue on Use of Artificial Intelligence in Communication: Ethical Implications for Media. This editorial examines the role that humans should play in the responsible use of generative artificial intelligence (GenAI) in the media. It provides an overview of transparency as an ethical obligation in relation to trust and truthfulness when using GenAI to create different kinds of content. Finally, it enters into the debate about the moral status of machines as we anticipate ethical questions in the study of ethics and GenAI in the media. Six articles complete this special issue with studies examining implications of GenAI for semiotics research, public relations, advertising, fact checking, information literacy and journalism education. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Language technologies are gaining momentum as textual information saturates social networks and media outlets, compounded by the growing role of fake news and disinformation. In this context, approaches to represent and analyse public speeches, news releases, social media posts and other types of discourses are becoming crucial. Although there is a large body of literature on text-based machine learning, it tends to focus on lexical and syntactical issues rather than semantic or pragmatic. Being useful, these advances cannot tackle the nuanced and highly context-dependent problems of discourse evaluation that society demands. In this paper, we present IAT/ML, a metamodel and modelling approach to represent and analyse discourses. IAT/ML focuses on semantic and pragmatic issues, thus tackling a little researched area in language technologies. It does so by combining three different modelling approaches: ontological, which focuses on what the discourse is about; argumentation, which deals with how the text justifies what it says; and agency, which provides insights into the speakers' beliefs, desires and intentions. Together, these three modelling approaches make IAT/ML a comprehensive solution to represent and analyse complex discourses towards their understanding, evaluation and fact checking. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purposes: We performed a conversation analysis of the speech conducted among the surgical team during three-dimensional (3D)-printed liver model navigation for thrice or more repeated hepatectomy (TMRH). Methods: Seventeen patients underwent 3D-printed liver navigation surgery for TMRH. After transcription of the utterances recorded during surgery, the transcribed utterances were coded by the utterer, utterance object, utterance content, sensor, and surgical process during conversation. We then analyzed the utterances and clarified the association between the surgical process and conversation through the intraoperative reference of the 3D-printed liver. Results: In total, 130 conversations including 1648 segments were recorded. Utterance coding showed that the operator/assistant, 3D-printed liver/real liver, fact check (F)/plan check (Pc), visual check/tactile check, and confirmation of planned resection or preservation target (T)/confirmation of planned or ongoing resection line (L) accounted for 791/857, 885/763, 1148/500, 1208/440, and 1304/344 segments, respectively. The utterance's proportions of assistants, F, F of T on 3D-printed liver, F of T on real liver, and Pc of L on 3D-printed liver were significantly higher during non-expert surgeries than during expert surgeries. Confirming the surgical process with both 3D-printed liver and real liver and performing planning using a 3D-printed liver facilitates the safe implementation of TMRH, regardless of the surgeon's experience. Conclusions: The present study, using a unique conversation analysis, provided the first evidence for the clinical value of 3D-printed liver for TMRH for anatomical guidance of non-expert surgeons. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Management and applied psychology scholars are confronted with a crisis undermining trust in their findings. One solution to this crisis is the publication format Registered Reports (RRs). Here, authors submit the frontend of their paper for peer review before data collection. While this format can help increase the trustworthiness of research, authors' usage of RRs—although emerging—has been scarce and scattered. Eventually, common beliefs regarding the (dis)advantages of RRs and a lack of best practices can limit the broad implementation of this approach. To address these issues, we utilized a systematic review process to identify 50 RRs in management and applied psychology and surveyed authors with (N = 86) and without experience (N = 161) in publishing RRs and reviewers/editors who have handled RRs (N = 59). On this basis, we (a) scrutinize prevalent beliefs surrounding the RR format in the fields of management and applied psychology and (b) derive hands-on best practices. In sum, we provide a fact check and guidelines for authors interested in writing RRs, which can also be used by reviewers to evaluate such submissions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

While “ears-and-eyes” and “mouthpieces” are two normative roles of Chinese journalists, the latter has long been more emphasized in the mobilization model of disaster reporting. Based on in-depth interviews with Chinese journalists who witnessed city lockdowns during the COVID-19 pandemic, this study examines how they performed the two roles to determine the extent to which their witnessing experiences could be transformed into media discourses. It argues that journalists’ bearing witness on disaster sites presupposed not only eyewitnessing but also earwitnessing in the form of survivor interviewing, fact checking, and truth investigation. While the “mouthpiece” orientation of news media may have obscured the potential of journalistic witnessing for timely exposing public suffering, there existed journalist-media negotiations on performing the two roles. Highlighting the role asymmetry between “ears-and-eyes” and “mouthpieces”, this study examines the veracity gap in Chinese journalists’ witnessing practice that derives from the tension between journalistic autonomy and structural restraints, which may contribute to the further theorization of journalistic witnessing. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

AbstractProblem: Misleading health information is detrimental to public health. Even physicians can be misled by biased health information; however, medical students and physicians are not taught some of the most effective techniques for identifying bias and misinformation online. Intervention: Using the stages of Kolb’s experiential learning cycle as a framework, we aimed to teach 117 third-year students at a United States medical school to apply a fact-checking technique for identifying bias and misinformation called “lateral reading” through a 50-minute learning cycle in a 90-minute class. Each student’s concrete experience was to independently read a biased article and rate its credibility, demonstrating their baseline skills at identifying bias. Students were given structured opportunities for reflective observation through individual and large group discussion. Students were guided through abstract conceptualization to determine techniques and frameworks utilized by fact checkers, specifically “lateral reading”—utilizing the internet to research the background of the author, organization, and citations using independent sources before exploring the article itself in depth. Students’ active experimentation included re-rating the credibility of the same article and discussing further implications with classmates and instructors. Context: In January 2020, sessions were offered to third-year medical students during their required, longitudinal transition-to-residency course. Impact: Compared to baseline, when using lateral reading, students deemed the article less credible. Students’ active experimentation changed whether they identified the organization and sources behind the article as credible. Notably, 86% (53/62) of students who viewed the organization positively pre-intervention did not describe the organization positively post intervention. Similarly, 66% (36/55) of students who cited the sources as positive pre-exercise changed their assessment after the exercise. While three students mentioned the author negatively pre-intervention, none of the 21 students who described the author in a negative fashion post-intervention described the author negatively pre-intervention. Positively describing the organization, author, or sources pre-intervention correlated with differences in credibility rating after the intervention. These findings indicate that teaching students to read laterally may increase their ability to detect bias in online medical information. Lessons Learned: Further research is needed to determine whether students who learned lateral reading via experiential learning will apply this skill in their education and career. Additionally, research should assess whether this skill helps future physicians counter bias and misinformation in ways that improve health. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: The COVID-19 pandemic has spurred the growth of a global infodemic. In order to combat the COVID-19 infodemic, it is necessary to understand what kinds of misinformation are spreading. Furthermore, various local factors influence how the infodemic manifests in different countries. Therefore, understanding how and why infodemics differ between countries is a matter of interest for public health. This study aims to elucidate and compare the types of COVID-19 misinformation produced from the infodemic in the US and Japan. Methods: COVID-19 fact-checking articles were obtained from the two largest publishers of fact-checking articles in each language. 1,743 US articles and 148 Japanese articles in their respective languages were gathered, with articles published between 23 January 2020 and 4 November 2022. Articles were analyzed using the free text mining software KH Coder. Exploration of frequently-occurring words and groups of related words was carried out. Based on agglomeration plots and prior research, eight categories of misinformation were created. Lastly, coding rules were created for these eight categories, and a chi-squared test was performed to compare the two datasets. Results: Overall, the most frequent words in both languages were related to health-related terms, but the Japan dataset had more words referring to foreign countries. Among the eight categories, differences with chi-squared p ≤ 0.01 were found after Holm-Bonferroni p value adjustment for the proportions of misinformation regarding statistics (US 40.0% vs. JP 25.7%, ϕ 0.0792); origin of the virus and resultant discrimination (US 7.0% vs. JP 20.3%, ϕ 0.1311); and COVID-19 disease severity, treatment, or testing (US 32.6% vs. JP 45.9%, ϕ 0.0756). Conclusions: Local contextual factors were found that likely influenced the infodemic in both countries; representations of these factors include societal polarization in the US and the HPV vaccine scare in Japan. It is possible that Japan's relative resistance to misinformation affects the kinds of misinformation consumed, directing attention away from conspiracy theories and towards health-related issues. However, more studies need to be done to verify whether misinformation resistance affects misinformation consumption patterns this way. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: Wikipedia's inclusive editorial policy permits unrestricted participation, enabling individuals to contribute and disseminate their expertise while drawing upon a multitude of external sources. News media outlets constitute nearly one-third of all citations within Wikipedia. However, embracing such a radically open approach also poses the challenge of the potential introduction of biased content or viewpoints into Wikipedia. The authors conduct an investigation into the integrity of knowledge within Wikipedia, focusing on the dimensions of source political polarization and trustworthiness. Specifically, the authors delve into the conceivable presence of political polarization within the news media citations on Wikipedia, identify the factors that may influence such polarization within the Wikipedia ecosystem and scrutinize the correlation between political polarization in news media sources and the factual reliability of Wikipedia's content. Design/methodology/approach: The authors conduct a descriptive and regression analysis, relying on Wikipedia Citations, a large-scale open dataset of nearly 30 million citations from English Wikipedia. Additionally, this dataset has been augmented with information obtained from the Media Bias Monitor (MBM) and the Media Bias Fact Check (MBFC). Findings: The authors find a moderate yet significant liberal bias in the choice of news media sources across Wikipedia. Furthermore, the authors show that this effect persists when accounting for the factual reliability of the news media. Originality/value: The results contribute to Wikipedia's knowledge integrity agenda in suggesting that a systematic effort would help to better map potential biases in Wikipedia and find means to strengthen its neutral point of view policy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract Background The COVID-19 pandemic has spurred the growth of a global infodemic. In order to combat the COVID-19 infodemic, it is necessary to understand what kinds of misinformation are spreading. Furthermore, various local factors influence how the infodemic manifests in different countries. Therefore, understanding how and why infodemics differ between countries is a matter of interest for public health. This study aims to elucidate and compare the types of COVID-19 misinformation produced from the infodemic in the US and Japan. Methods COVID-19 fact-checking articles were obtained from the two largest publishers of fact-checking articles in each language. 1,743 US articles and 148 Japanese articles in their respective languages were gathered, with articles published between 23 January 2020 and 4 November 2022. Articles were analyzed using the free text mining software KH Coder. Exploration of frequently-occurring words and groups of related words was carried out. Based on agglomeration plots and prior research, eight categories of misinformation were created. Lastly, coding rules were created for these eight categories, and a chi-squared test was performed to compare the two datasets. Results Overall, the most frequent words in both languages were related to health-related terms, but the Japan dataset had more words referring to foreign countries. Among the eight categories, differences with chi-squared p ≤ 0.01 were found after Holm-Bonferroni p value adjustment for the proportions of misinformation regarding statistics (US 40.0% vs. JP 25.7%, ϕ 0.0792); origin of the virus and resultant discrimination (US 7.0% vs. JP 20.3%, ϕ 0.1311); and COVID-19 disease severity, treatment, or testing (US 32.6% vs. JP 45.9%, ϕ 0.0756). Conclusions Local contextual factors were found that likely influenced the infodemic in both countries; representations of these factors include societal polarization in the US and the HPV vaccine scare in Japan. It is possible that Japan’s relative resistance to misinformation affects the kinds of misinformation consumed, directing attention away from conspiracy theories and towards health-related issues. However, more studies need to be done to verify whether misinformation resistance affects misinformation consumption patterns this way.

Purpose: Fact-checking is a process of seeking and displaying facts to confirm or counter uncertain information, which reduces the spread of fake news. However, little is known about how to promote fact-checking posts to online users on social media. Through uncertainty reduction theory and message framing, this first study examines the effect of fact-checking posts on social media with an avatar on online users' trust, attitudes, and behavioral intentions. The authors further investigate the congruency effects between promotional message framing (gain/loss/neutral) and facial expressions of the avatar (happy/angry/neutral) on online users' trust, attitudes, and behavioral intentions in the second study. Design/methodology/approach: The authors conducted two studies and statistically analyzed 120 samples (study 1) and 519 samples (study 2) from Facebook users. Findings: Results showed that including the neutral facial expression avatar in fact-checking posts leads to online users' greater trust and more positive attitudes. Furthermore, the congruency effects between loss message framing and the angry facial expression of the avatar can effectively promote online users' trust and attitudes as well as stronger intentions to follow and share. Originality/value: This study offers theoretical implications for fact-checking studies, and practical implications for online fact-checkers to apply these findings to design effective fact-checking posts and spread the veracity of information on social media. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

How can we empower social media users to better discern the veracity of news and share less false news? This survey experiment (N  =   636) assessed the effectiveness of two interventions—signing a Pro-Truth Pledge and utilizing a Fact-Checking Guide. Results showed that utilizing the Fact-Checking Guide increased skepticism of news posts, likelihood to verify news posts, verification engagement, and reduced intention to share news without regard to news veracity. Before and after comparisons indicated that after verification engagement activities, truth and sharing discernment improved with higher factual accuracy ratings for true news, lower accuracy ratings for false news, and a greater likelihood to share true news compared to false news. Individual's engagement in verification was identified as a crucial mechanism through which the Fact-Checking Guide intervention led to better truth and sharing discernment. The study could inform social media designs that promote a truthful news environment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This experimental investigation explores the influence of election fraud fact-checking and cognitive processing styles on participants' confidence in the 2020 U.S. presidential election's legitimacy and characterizations of the January Sixth Capitol Hill Attack. The results indicate fact-checking, accuracy motivated reasoning, and systematic processing exerted positive effects on participants' legitimacy levels, especially among Republicans. We also found that participants' systematic processing, affiliation with the Democratic Party, and negative attitudes toward Donald Trump were associated with their characterizations of the January Sixth Capitol Hill Attack as violent and extreme. Overall, these results support both motivated reasoning and dual process models, but partisan motivated reasoning exerted the greatest effects. Further, these findings suggest Republican and pro-Trump participants who rely on heuristic processing may find violent, extra-political actions acceptable means of attempting to achieve their goals. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Is there an economic incentive for celebrities and well-known media firms to commingle falsehoods into news stories? We conducted five experiments, plus a field validation using secondary data. When presented by celebrities and well-known media firms, a commingled partisan falsehood in an otherwise true news story significantly increased viewing and sharing intentions among politically aligned viewers. The effect was weaker but significant when we replaced the celebrity with an unknown speaker and disappeared when both the celebrity and the well-known firm were replaced by unknowns. This effect was explained by confirmation bias and the viewer's belief that the falsehood was true. In contrast, a false news story focusing on the same falsehood increased viewing and sharing intentions only when presented by unknowns, with viewers' belief playing a limited role. The field study found a significantly positive relationship between a commingled partisan falsehood in videos of well-known media firms and actual viewership. We conclude that commingled partisan falsehoods provide a significant viewership increase for celebrities and well-known media firms, creating an economic incentive for lying and posing complex challenges in the fake news era. We discuss the challenges and opportunities in this area for policymakers and media firms. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Journal of Communication Theory & Research / Iletisim Kuram ve Arastirma Dergisi is the property of Gazi University, Faculty of Communication and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

The interpretation and interrelation of the concepts of “fact”, “meaning”, “term” throughout the 20th–21st centuries were constantly in the zone of interest of researchers: sociologists, philosophers, cultural scientists, linguists, lawyers, as well as writers and journalists. At the same time, this connection, outwardly understandable and logical, was understood as an increasingly complex composition, depending both on the peculiarities of human perception and on the social modeling of various kinds of messages to target audiences. This article examines the dynamics and current state of these ideas, connected, on the one hand, with the internetization and mediatization of society; and, on the other, motivated by the presence and strengthening of the global socio-political conjuncture at the interstate and other levels. The author’s research focuses on the problems of terrorism as the most acute and revealing. There is no unified internationally accepted definition of terrorism. To an even greater extent, this applies to social practice, in the process of which the perpetrators and customers of terrorist attacks are determined by interested parties in different ways, up to the complete opposite. The immediate facts of terror are interpreted in the same way, when the fixation of a real event is supplemented or completely replaced by a demonstration of its meaning. The article examines the prerequisites and modern practice of creating and subsequent application of factual, meaning and terms elements in the compositions of published messages. By analyzing the materials of Russian and Western mass media, the author explores the dynamic change in the goals and roles of these elements in influencing target audiences. In the course of the study, the hypothesis is put forward and confirmed that reports of acts of terror turn into an instrument of information warfare, and their semantic part acquires a dominant character. Technologies are being developed to verify the facts for authenticity and identify the primary goals of the authors of the messages. However, the priority form of counter-actions is the formation of stereotypical attitudes among target groups to the rejection of events, statements and their content designations in the media, qualified by the state as terrorist.

The surge of disinformation in the digital sphere following the COVID-19 pandemic presents a considerable threat to democratic principles in contemporary societies. In response, multiple fact-checking platforms and citizen media literacy initiatives have been promoted. The fact checker has indeed become a new professional profile demanded by the sector. In this context, this research delves into the study of digital skills applied to information verification by journalism students. Adopting a comprehensive understanding of digital skills that extends beyond technical proficiency to encompass a shift in mindset, journalism students' perceptions of their verification abilities are examined using a quantitative survey technique. This examination is based on an original list of competencies prepared specifically for this study. The results indicate that journalism students demonstrate awareness of the implications of disinformation, exhibiting scepticism towards content from unfamiliar sources or displaying clear signs of deceptive intent. Furthermore, they emphasise the importance of verification and fact-checking practices and express confidence in their proficiency in analysis, critical thinking, and social skills. However, their confidence in handling computer applications for verification and specialisation in data journalism is comparatively lower. Notably, significant gender disparities were observed in these areas, with women exhibiting greater confidence in social skills, collaborative work, and innovation, while men displayed a heightened proficiency in computer applications. Consequently, there is a need for improvements in teaching practices, which could potentially create new job opportunities for journalism students. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study investigated the ways in which people engaged in fact-checking in a highly divided context—the Anti-Extradition Bill Movement (AEBM) in Hong Kong. A telephone survey representative of the Hong Kong population was conducted in 2020 (N = 1,004). The findings showed that males with greater news consumption and issue involvement were more likely to engage in fact-checking behavior. Nevertheless, the effects of fact-checking appeared mixed. We first found that fact-checking behavior reduced belief in disagreeable misinformation only for supporters of the AEBM. More robust evidence showed that frequent fact-checking behavior reinforced, rather than reduced, partisans' belief in misinformation regarding the opponent group. A warning of the backfire effects of fact-checking on exacerbating opinion polarization and social division is issued. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Bulletin of the L.N. Gumilyov Eurasian National University. Journalism Series is the property of L.N. Gumilyov Eurasian National University and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

This paper uses a laboratory experiment to investigate the efficacy of different content moderation policies designed to combat misinformation on social media. These policies vary the way posts are monitored and the consequence imposed when misinformation is detected. We consider three monitoring protocols: (1) individuals can fact check information shared by other group members for a cost; (2) the social media platform randomly fact checks each post with a fixed probability; (3) the combination of individual and platform fact checking. We consider two consequences: (1) fact-checked posts are flagged, such that the results of the fact check are available to all who view the post; (2) fact-checked posts are flagged, and subjects found to have posted misinformation are automatically fact checked for two subsequent rounds, which we call persistent scrutiny. We compare our data to that of Pascarella et al. (Social media, (mis)information, and voting decisions. Working paper, 2022), which studies an identical environment without content moderation. We find that allowing individuals to fact check improves group decision making and welfare. Platform checking alone does not improve group decisions relative to the baseline with no moderation. It can improve welfare, but only in the case of persistent scrutiny. There are marginal improvements when the two protocols are combined. We also find that flagging is sufficient to curb the negative effects of misinformation. Adding persistent scrutiny does not improve the quality of decision-making; it leads to less engagement on the social media platform as fewer group members share posts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Disinformation is currently one of Europe's greatest challenges. In the past years, the European continent in general and, more precisely, the European Union have been suffering from various disinformation campaigns: such as the one that led to Brexit; the parallel health and disinformation pandemic; or the hybrid propaganda strategy following the Russian invasion of Ukraine. In this context, the death of Queen Elizabeth II of England has also been marked by disinformation practices that went viral throughout Europe. Therefore, this research aims to delve into the nature of disinformation regarding the death of the Queen in the timeframe between 8 and 22 September 2022, focusing in three European countries, namely Spain, the United Kingdom and France. For that purpose, the study is based on a content analysis of 76 publications published by fact-checking organisation, as well as open-ended surveys with specialised agents on disinformation. Overall, results show that social networks were the main platform through which misinformative content was disseminated, with Twitter occupying the first position- whereas other previous studies have shown the primacy of Facebook as a source of disinformation. The hoaxes, which generally included images, mainly responded to the typology of misleading and fabricated content established by Wardle (2017). Likewise, the main subject matter of the viral hoaxes was conspiracy theories, focusing on Elizabeth II as the main protagonist. Moreover, the frequency of hoax dissemination was significantly higher during the first week after the death of the monarch and responded to a transnational trend in which the spread of disinformation was adapted to national contexts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Regional and local media outlets have much more credibility than news organizations placed at a national level, according to polls. In a context fueled by the spread of disinformation, audiences seem to trust close journalistic sources, while national and international leaders are seen as polarized. However, local journalism has few resources for fact checking. In this context, we explore some of the strategies developed by local news organizations to avoid the proliferation of fake news. This study uses a multiple-case study on four local media outlets from similar media systems (Spain and Portugal) as a qualitative research strategy. Drawing upon in-depth interviews with local journalists and secondary data analysis, we examine how these media outlets deal with fake news, shedding light on internal fact-checking resources and other original strategies applied. From our interviews, their journalists are aware of the problem, asking for more training; whereas their organizations have different approaches to the digital platforms where most of disinformation circulates. These findings contribute to the scant literature on the role of the local field in disinformation, arguing that the social mission of local journalism may be a guarantee against fake news if their journalists are trained. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper introduces a model to combat fake news and propaganda spread on social media, derived from a systematic literature review of 28 articles. It outlines the model based on seven key themes: scepticism, AI detection, fact checking, media literacy, ethical technology use, digital manipulation, and community verification. This comprehensive model aims to bolster individuals' and communities' abilities to critically assess information, emphasising its application in research, policy, and education. By advocating a multi-layered strategy, the model seeks to foster a discerning global community equipped to navigate the complexities of discerning fake news and propaganda. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Regional and local media outlets have much more credibility than news organizations placed at a national level, according to polls. In a context fueled by the spread of disinformation, audiences seem to trust close journalistic sources, while national and international leaders are seen as polarized. However, local journalism has few resources for fact checking. In this context, we explore some of the strategies developed by local news organizations to avoid the proliferation of fake news. This study uses a multiple-case study on four local media outlets from similar media systems (Spain and Portugal) as a qualitative research strategy. Drawing upon in-depth interviews with local journalists and secondary data analysis, we examine how these media outlets deal with fake news, shedding light on internal fact-checking resources and other original strategies applied. From our interviews, their journalists are aware of the problem, asking for more training; whereas their organizations have different approaches to the digital platforms where most of disinformation circulates. These findings contribute to the scant literature on the role of the local field in disinformation, arguing that the social mission of local journalism may be a guarantee against fake news if their journalists are trained.

Fact checking is becoming an essential journalistic task because of the proliferation of misinformative content disseminated massively through social media and other channels. Based on this observation, the fundamental objective of the research that serves as the basis for this paper was to learn about the Spanish journalists' professional routines and training in fact-checking. The authors developed a 29-item questionnaire distributed via email to journalists nationwide between May and June 2023 to collect the information. We obtained 326 responses, resulting in several findings: a) the implementation of data verification is not uniform, being more frequent in some types of media --newspapers and verification platforms-- and in large corporations; b) workload is an obstacle that prevents most journalists from devoting as much time to verification as it would require; c) some areas generate more problems when it comes to cross-checking data --such as politics and economics--; d) the preferred sources for verification are academic and official sources --governments, state security forces-; e) the digital tools that are known or used by professionals still have low penetration rates, with only some exceptions; f) although the perception of the respondents is that they are sufficiently trained for verification work, only a minority have received specific training in this area. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The objective of this research is to understand the impact generated by fake news on the political perception and critical thinking of citizens who receive information through social networks during the Social Outbreak in Chile, and to assess the value of new independent fact checking media created during the same period. The methodology employs a mixed approach with an exploratory scope, involving the creation of an assessment tool used to evaluate 95 subjects from the Biobío Region, Chile who assessed and categorized a news item as true or false. The primary findings reveal that participants perceive sharing fake news as a perilous action, and they hold the belief that fake news has the potential to alter political and social ideologies. In conclusion, assessing subjects' strategies for identifying fake news allows for the development of evaluation tools that promote data verification and enhance media literacy. This becomes crucial as the criteria for verification among active social network users are often low, indicating a level of credibility in published content without thorough scrutiny of data sources or acknowledgment of the risks associated with disseminating potentially false information. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The issue of the dissemination of fake news has been widely addressed in the literature, but the issue of the dissemination of fact checks to debunk fake news has not received sufficient attention. Fake news is tailored to reach a wide audience, a concern that, as this paper shows, does not seem to be present in fact checking. As a result, fact checking, no matter how good it is, fails in its goal of debunking fake news for the general public. This paper addresses this problem with the aim of increasing the effectiveness of the fact checking of online social media posts through the use of cognitive tools, yet grounded in ethical principles. The paper consists of a profile of the prevalence of fact checking in online social media (both from the literature and from field data) and an assessment of the extent to which engagement can be increased by using simple cognitive enhancements in the text of the post. The focus is on Snopes and X (formerly Twitter). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Within what is known as the post-truth era, politicians strategically trade in alternative interpretations of data, make bold populist claims and on occasions be completely dishonest for party political gains. Such practices coincide with ever-declining trust in politicians and the democratic system, a phenomenon common to both Spain and the UK. We enquire whether public mistrust is deserved exploring the extent party leaders employ misinformation as part of their strategic communication. The paper analyses falsehoods made by political leaders as determined by major fact-checking sites EFE Verifica and Newtral in Spain, and the UK's BBC Reality Check and Full Fact. We categorise falsehoods as misinformation, alternative facts, bullshit or lies. Results show right-wing parties most responsible for all forms of falsehoods, or they are most likely to face analysis from factcheckers. Falsehoods are used by governments defending their policies, but also by oppositions to attack the government; especially alternative facts. The overwhelming majority of policy attacks based on false information are from opposition parties, particularly Spanish parties on the right. The flagrant use of bullshit and lies, while simultaneously calling out their more mainstream opponents for similar practices, poisons the notion of democratic pluralism and makes low public trust seem perfectly justified. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: Given the rapid growth in efforts on misinformation correction, the study aims to test how evidence type and veracity interact with news agreement on the effectiveness of fact-checking on how well a corrective message discount a false news information. Design/methodology/approach: Experimental participants (N = 511) in Hong Kong were exposed to the same news article and then to a piece of corrective information debunking the news article with variation in the types of evidence (numerical vs narrative) and veracity (no verdict vs half false vs entirely false) in 2019. Findings: Among the participants who disagreed with the news article, numerical fact-checking was more effective than narrative fact-checking in discounting the news article. Some evidence of the backfire effect was found among participants for whom the article was attitude incongruent. Originality/value: When debunking false information with people exposed to attitude-incongruent news, a milder verdict presented in the form of a half-false scale can prompt a more positive perception of the issue at stake than an entirely false scale, implying that a less certain verdict can help in mitigating the backfire effect compared to a certain verdict. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Prior research has suggested that corrective fact-checking has inconsistent effects on beliefs about online misinformation claims. This study attempts to explain this inconsistency using three contingent factors--claim-source credibility, fact-checker credibility, and attitude strength--which respectively relate to three key parties in the fact-checking process: the source of a misleading claim, the fact-checker, and the user evaluating the fact-check. I hypothesize the interplay between these factors, which is tested using two online experiments on COVID-19-related misinformation with over 900 participants. Multilevel analysis of pretest-posttest, repeated measures data supports the hypothesized moderating effects and offers additional insights about how these effects vary between earlier versus later phases of misinformation cycles. The paper concludes with a discussion of contributions to research and practice. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Easy access to equipment, software, and platforms to create, distribute, and provide access to fake news stories has exacerbated the problem of fake news, making for a large number of highly biased sources that are reaching the mainstream through social networks. The economics of emotion theory proposes that fake news headlines are created to evoke emotional responses in readers that will cause them to interact with the article in a way that allows the creator to make a profit (through clicking on the link to the full article, by sharing the article, etc.). This mixed methods study investigates the process by which individuals experience discrete emotional reactions to fake news headlines, and how these emotions contribute to the perpetuation of fake news through sharing behaviors. U.S. participants (n=879 across two waves) viewed one of eight false news headlines and reported their emotional reactions, belief in the headline, and potential sharing behaviors. In general, participants were more likely to believe headlines that aligned with their existing beliefs (e.g., liberals were more likely to believe negative news about conservatives), reacted with more negative emotions to headlines that attacked their party, and were more likely to report intentions to suppress (e.g., post a link to a fact check) fake news that attacked their own party. Emotional reactivity of participants was associated with response behavior intentions such that participants who reported high levels of emotions were more likely to take actions that would spread or suppress the fake news, participants who reported low levels of emotions were more likely to ignore or disengage from the spread of false news, and participants who reported high levels of negative emotions and low levels of positive emotions were more likely to suppress the spread of fake news and less likely to contribute to the spread of fake news. Our findings are synthesized into a process model that explains how discrete emotions and beliefs influence sharing behaviors. Implications for mitigating the spread of fake news are discussed in terms of this model. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

There has been a tremendous increase in the popularity of social media such as blogs, Instagram, twitter, online websites etc. The increasing utilization of these platforms have enabled the users to share information on a regular basis and also publicize social events. Nevertheless, most of the multimedia events are filled with social bots which raise concerns on the authenticity of the information shared in these events. With the increasing advancements of social bots, the complexity of detecting and fact-checking is also increasing. This is mainly due to the similarity between authorized users and social bots. Several researchers have introduced different models for detecting social bots and fact checking. However, these models suffer from various challenges. In most of the cases, these bots become indistinguishable from existing users and it is challenging to extract relevant attributes of the bots. In addition, it is also challenging to collect large scale data and label them for training the bot detection models. The performance of existing traditional classifiers used for bot detection processes is not satisfactory. This paper presents: • A machine learning based adaptive fuzzy neuro model integrated with a hist gradient boosting (HGB) classifier for identifying the persisting pattern of social bots for fake news detection. • And Harris Hawk optimization with Bi-LSTM for social bot prediction. • Results validate the efficacy of the HGB classifier which achieves a phenomenal accuracy of 95.64 % for twitter bot and 98.98 % for twitch bot dataset.

The 'Fact Checking' series of titles published by Laterza since 2020 is, in the first place, a response to the proliferation of historical fake news, which has grown exponentially as a consequence of social networks. But it is also a response to an increasingly systematic political abuse of history – not only in Italy. The authors and the public firmly believe in the necessity of restoring complexity and value to historical research, as well as in the importance of playing a significant role in the public debate about our past. In many ways the political use of history works in an authoritarian and anti-democratic manner, spreading erroneous and dangerous convictions among broad sections of society. Among the examples which appear in various sections of the article, we discuss the books in the series which problematise the 'official' and victimist version of events which took place on the Italian-Yugoslavian border at the end of the Second World War. Other parts of the article examine the instrumental readings of the history and experience of twentieth-century communism. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In Bangladesh, there have been many incidents of violence linked to social media platforms, particularly Facebook. These incidents have been caused by posts that have either intentionally or unintentionally provoked hatred and instigated violence. In this study, we examine seven such incidents that were triggered by religious differences in Bangladesh. By reviewing previous research and case studies, we aim to identify the factors that contribute to the spread of hate speech and misinformation on social media. We also discuss the challenges involved in preventing violent incidents. To reduce the likelihood of such incidents, we propose three recommendations: prioritize news for fact-checking, promote fact-checking among users, and involve users in the factchecking process. These recommendations can be implemented using existing technology to limit the spread of false information and hate speech on social media platforms. This could ultimately reduce the risk of violent incidents triggered by social media. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Three years after a pandemic that demonstrated the importance of reliable health information in a news agenda dominated by coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), we analyze the situation of health disinformation in Spain on the basis of the verifications carried out by its main fact-checking platforms. The results show that COVID-19 shared center stage with other topics in the health area. In addition, a unique agenda is evident in each situation in the study, indicating a fact-checking strategy that is differentiated according to the media outlet and type of specialization (generalist fact-checker or one specialized in health). Vaccination, nutrition, and disease treatment emerge as the most important thematic subfields. Most health hoaxes are manufactured, i.e., created from scratch, rather than being manipulated or reconfigured from real preexisting elements. The format of text and image together predominates, and new social networks (TikTok or Telegram) have appeared as platforms for the circulation of hoaxes. This indicates that providing necessary health literacy to society and giving health issues greater presence in current fact-checking agendas are strategies for combatting disinformation, which can have serious consequences, regardless of whether there is a public health crisis such as the one experienced recently. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the post-COVID era, explanatory journalism is undergoing a resurgence that can be attributed to the proliferation of false content disseminated via social networks and the maturation of fact checking initiatives. Fact checkers are beginning to delve into those topics that are recurrent targets of disinformation to make complex issues accessible to the public. This study investigates the characteristics and methodologies of contemporary explanatory journalism by analysing four European verification platforms (Newtral in Spain, Les Décodeurs in France, FACTA.news in Italy and The Journal FactCheck unit in Ireland). We employed content analysis of a corpus of explainers and semi-structured interviews with the managers of these outlets. Our findings reveal that explainers encompass a wide range of topics, typically revolving around current affairs. These pieces are usually authored by fact checkers and published, with bylines, within dedicated sections that encourage audience participation. Explainers do not adhere to a fixed periodicity or length and adopt a format similar to feature articles, displaying a degree of flexibility. They leverage data provided by experts and official sources and employ visual elements to convey information clearly. The interviewed managers concur that explanatory journalism represents an invaluable tool in combatting disinformation and has a promising future ahead. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article focuses on addressing the lack of interpretability in neural document ranking models by introducing a Select-And-Rank paradigm that generates explanations for ranking decisions through sentence selection. It aims to make ranking models interpretable and demonstrates its applicability in various ranking tasks.

New media literacy is an expected competency for university students. However, few literacy scales can evaluate students' fake news reporting and checking abilities. In the past, the new media literacy framework only included Critical Consuming, Critical Prosumption, Functional Prosumption, and Functional Consuming. Therefore, this study proposes a self-assessable new online media and reporting literacy scale (NOMRL) based on the previous new media literacy framework. The NOMRL scale was developed in four phases. A literature review generated a pool of items in the first phase. Phase 2 was conducted through an expert review to confirm the validity of the content. Phase 3 was the purification of the scale in Study 1, where 243 university students participated in this survey phase. Finally, we analyzed 365 university students' responses in Study 2 and derived a factor structure using EFA while conducting a reliability assessment with CFA to test the theoretical structure. This study resulted in a 22-item scale, including two new constructs: Behavioral Consumption and Behavioral Prosumption. The scale can help college students self-assess their level of reporting-related literacy in social media. In addition to discussing the educational implications, this paper provides insights and suggestions for future research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article analyses and discusses attitudes and practices concerning verification among Swedish journalists. The research results are based on a survey of more than 800 Swedish journalists about their attitudes towards verification (Journalist 2018) and a design project where a prototype for verification in newsrooms – the Fact Check Assistant (FCA) – was developed and evaluated. The results of the survey show a lack of routines when it comes to verifying content from social media and blogs and considerable uncertainty among journalists about whether this kind of verification is possible. The development of the prototype initially created reactions of interest and curiosity from the newsroom staff. Gradually, however, the degree of scepticism about its usability increased. A lack of time and a lack of knowledge were two of the obstacles to introducing new verification routines. It is not enough to introduce new digital tools, according to the journalists. Management must also allocate time for training. The paper's ultimate conclusion is that changing journalists' and editors' attitudes towards verification in this digital age appears to be guided by newsroom culture rather than technical solutions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Estudios sobre el Mensaje Periodistico is the property of Universidad Complutense de Madrid and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)