The Propagation of Misinformation in Social Media

A Cross-platform Analysis

Bibliographic Data

ID23519636
EditorsRichard Rogers (0000-0002-9897-6559)
Year2023
Publication date2023-12-31
Open AccessYes
TypeBOOK
VenuePropagation of Misinformation in Social Media (SOURCE_BOOK)
PublisherAmsterdam University Press (PUBLISHER • NL)
DOI10.1515/9789048554249
OpenAlexW4366992323
Open LibraryOL49588415M
ISBN9789048554249
LanguageEN
Citations received4
References cited64

The ProPagaTion of MiSinforMaTion in Social MediaAs I note in the opening chapter, the social media platforms have introduced "editorial epistemologies" for elections and the pandemic, authoring lists of authoritative sources that appear when one queries core election-related or pandemic-related keywords or making other manual interventions beyond commercial content moderation, the outsourced, low-wage work of removing offensive content.They also have had to assume the role of "accidental authorities," developing rapidly evolving source and information adjudication policy that at the same time invites backlash for heavy-handedness as well as competition from "alt-tech" platforms that moderate with a lighter touch.The extent of the platforms' editing, and particularly where it ends, is on display in each of the studies.Each of the chapters benefits from techniques developed to capture the data necessary to exhibit the current state of the misinformation problem.Some rely on platform-supplied data (Twitter, Instagram), another on a repurposed marketing data dashboard (Facebook) and others on scraping (Google Web Search, Reddit, 4chan, TikTok).There is also a study that uses one platform (4chan) to analyze another (YouTube), given the copious referencing of YouTube videos by "alternative influencers" and later to vernacular newcomers.Many of the studies also classify sources as mainstream or alternative (to varying degrees) as well as evincing a political bent, relying on (and triangulating) external classification schemes developed by journalists and other media analysts.The platform studies were undertaken twice (and on occasion three times), first in the early run-up to the U.S. presidential elections and the pandemic (March, 2020) and again after the elections and deeper into the pandemic (January, 2021 and/or March, 2021).One of the Twitter studies takes advantage of the data spanning the Capitol riots of January 6, 2021 in Washington, DC, allowing for the analysis of how the platform's subsequent purge of accounts had an impact on the quality of the sources encountered.The studies have been written up in the format of the Harvard Kennedy School Misinformation Review, where earlier versions of the Facebook and 4chan/Reddit chapters were published.It is a format that leads with the research questions and is followed by an essay summary, the implications and the findings.The methods section comes last.To us the format highlights the relevance of the work to journalists and thus also serves well the collaboration with First Draft.

Computer security · Internet privacy · Misinformation · Social media · World Wide Web · Computer Science · Misinformation and Its Impacts · Journalism · Mass media

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