TY - JOUR
T1 - Are you passing along something true or false? Dissemination of social media messages about genetically modified organisms
AU - Xu, Qian
AU - Song, Yunya
AU - Yu, Nan
AU - Chen, Shi
N1 - Funding Information:
The authors disclosed receipt of the following financial support for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article: This project is supported by the Post-Probationary Faculty Development Course-Reassignment Fund at Elon University and in part by the Interdisciplinary Research Clusters Matching Scheme (IRCMS/19-20/D04) and the AI and Media Research Lab at Hong Kong Baptist University (SDF17-1013-P01).
PY - 2021/4/1
Y1 - 2021/4/1
N2 - Using network analysis, this study investigates how information veracity and account verification influence the dissemination of information in the context of discourse about genetically modified organisms on social media. We discovered that misinformation and true information about genetically modified organisms demonstrated different dissemination patterns on social media. In general, the dissemination networks of misinformation about genetically modified organisms were found to have higher structural stability than those of true information about genetically modified organisms, as shown by the denser network structure with fewer distinct subgroups residing within the dissemination networks. More importantly, unverified account status significantly boosted the dissemination of misinformation by increasing network density. In addition, we found that the posts about genetically modified organisms from unverified accounts received more reposts and had more layers of information relay than those from the verified accounts. Theoretical and practical implications of these findings on combating misinformation are discussed in the article.
AB - Using network analysis, this study investigates how information veracity and account verification influence the dissemination of information in the context of discourse about genetically modified organisms on social media. We discovered that misinformation and true information about genetically modified organisms demonstrated different dissemination patterns on social media. In general, the dissemination networks of misinformation about genetically modified organisms were found to have higher structural stability than those of true information about genetically modified organisms, as shown by the denser network structure with fewer distinct subgroups residing within the dissemination networks. More importantly, unverified account status significantly boosted the dissemination of misinformation by increasing network density. In addition, we found that the posts about genetically modified organisms from unverified accounts received more reposts and had more layers of information relay than those from the verified accounts. Theoretical and practical implications of these findings on combating misinformation are discussed in the article.
KW - account verification status
KW - genetically modified organisms
KW - information dissemination
KW - information veracity
KW - social media
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85093940530&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1177/0963662520966745
DO - 10.1177/0963662520966745
M3 - Journal article
C2 - 33103588
AN - SCOPUS:85093940530
SN - 0963-6625
VL - 30
SP - 285
EP - 301
JO - Public Understanding of Science
JF - Public Understanding of Science
IS - 3
ER -