Abstract
Social Networking Sites (SNSs) have recently played incredibly positive and pivotal roles by enabling instantaneous communication during events such as the Arab Spring in 2012 and in the aftermath of Hurricane Harvey in 2007. However, SNSs also play a significant role in the spread of spread fake news. Specifically, fake news concerning politics regularly reaches more people quicker than all other types. This phenomenon recently appeared during the 2019 Nigerian Presidential Election, where there have been fake news reports about a dead president with clones acting in his place. Earlier studies have been mostly quantitative and have focused on the characteristics of the individual’s social network. We propose to qualitatively explore this phenomenon with a focus on the characteristics of the individual sharing fake news. The goal of this study is to determine what role education plays in the verification of information before sharing political news.
Recommended Citation
Villafranca, Eric and Peters, Uchenna, "Smart and Blissful? Exploring the Characteristics of Individuals That Share Fake News on Social Networking Sites" (2019). AMCIS 2019 Proceedings. 10.
https://aisel.aisnet.org/amcis2019/virtual_communities/virtual_communities/10
Smart and Blissful? Exploring the Characteristics of Individuals That Share Fake News on Social Networking Sites
Social Networking Sites (SNSs) have recently played incredibly positive and pivotal roles by enabling instantaneous communication during events such as the Arab Spring in 2012 and in the aftermath of Hurricane Harvey in 2007. However, SNSs also play a significant role in the spread of spread fake news. Specifically, fake news concerning politics regularly reaches more people quicker than all other types. This phenomenon recently appeared during the 2019 Nigerian Presidential Election, where there have been fake news reports about a dead president with clones acting in his place. Earlier studies have been mostly quantitative and have focused on the characteristics of the individual’s social network. We propose to qualitatively explore this phenomenon with a focus on the characteristics of the individual sharing fake news. The goal of this study is to determine what role education plays in the verification of information before sharing political news.