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Misinformation, Disinformation, and Polarization

A guide to fake news, bad journalism and social media reaction

emotional intelligence (noun)
the capacity to be aware of, control, and express one's emotions, and to handle interpersonal relationships judiciously and empathetically. 

 

A recent study has suggested the aspects of being highly emotionally intelligent can help individual detect fraudulant information. While more research need to be done on this matter, this study represents just one of a number of studies that link our emotional state with success or failure of misinformation and disinformation in the media and online. 

The following is a presentation that we originally give by Helen Lane and Cody Kirkpatrick in October of 2020 during FIT's Civility Week.


Anderson, A. A., Yeo, S. K., Brossard, D., Scheufele, D. A., & Xenos, M. A. (2018). Toxic Talk: How Online Incivility Can Undermine Perceptions of Media. International Journal of Public Opinion Research, 30(1), 156–168. https://doi.org/10.1093/ijpor/edw022

Bode, L., Vraga, E. K., & Tully, M. (2020). Do the right thing: Tone may not affect correction of misinformation on social media. Harvard Kennedy School Misinformation Review. https://doi.org/10.37016/mr-2020-026

Chuai, Y., & Zhao, J. (2020). Anger makes fake news viral online. ArXiv Preprint ArXiv:2004.10399.

Del Vicario, M., Vivaldo, G., Bessi, A., Zollo, F., Scala, A., Caldarelli, G., & Quattrociocchi, W. (2016). Echo Chambers: Emotional Contagion and Group Polarization on Facebook. Scientific Reports, 6(1), 37825. https://doi.org/10.1038/srep37825

Egelhofer, J. L., & Lecheler, S. (2019). Fake news as a two-dimensional phenomenon: A framework and research agenda. Annals of the International Communication Association, 43(2), 97–116. https://doi.org/10.1080/23808985.2019.1602782

Hasell, A., & Weeks, B. E. (2016). Partisan Provocation: The Role of Partisan News Use and Emotional Responses in Political Information Sharing in Social Media. Human Communication Research, 42(4), 641–661. https://doi.org/10.1111/hcre.12092

Kim, J. W., & Masullo Chen, G. (2020). Exploring the Influence of Comment Tone and Content in Response to Misinformation in Social Media News. Journalism Practice, 1–15. https://doi.org/10.1080/17512786.2020.1739550

Lee, T. (2019). The global rise of “fake news” and the threat to democratic elections in the USA. Public Administration and Policy, 22(1), 15–24. https://doi.org/10.1108/PAP-04-2019-0008

Mason, L., Krutka, D., & Stoddard, J. (2018). Media Literacy, Democracy, and the Challenge of Fake News. Journal of Media Literacy Education, 10(2), 1–10. https://doi.org/10.23860/JMLE-2018-10-2-1

Masullo, G. M., & Kim, J. (2020). Exploring “Angry” and “Like” Reactions on Uncivil Facebook Comments That Correct Misinformation in the News. Digital Journalism, 1–20.

Newman, N. (2018). Reuters Institute Digital Report 2018 (Reuters Institute Digital Report). https://s3-eu-west-1.amazonaws.com/media.digitalnewsreport.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/06/digital-news-report-2018.pdf

Nguyen, C. T. (2020). Echo Chambers and Epistemic Bubbles. Episteme, 17(2), 141–161. https://doi.org/10.1017/epi.2018.32

Ognyanova, K., Lazer, D., Robertson, R. E., & Wilson, C. (2020). Misinformation in action: Fake news exposure is linked to lower trust in media, higher trust in government when your side is in power. Harvard Kennedy School Misinformation Review. https://doi.org/10.37016/mr-2020-024

Raine, L., Anderson, J., & Albright, J. (2017, March 29). The Future of Free Speech, Trolls, Anonymity and Fake News Online. Pew Research Center: Internet, Science & Tech. https://www.pewresearch.org/internet/2017/03/29/the-future-of-free-speech-trolls-anonymity-and-fake-news-online/

Rampersad, G., & Althiyabi, T. (2020). Fake news: Acceptance by demographics and culture on social media. Journal of Information Technology & Politics, 17(1), 1–11. https://doi.org/10.1080/19331681.2019.1686676

Suhay, E., Bello-Pardo, E., & Maurer, B. (2018). The Polarizing Effects of Online Partisan Criticism: Evidence from Two Experiments. The International Journal of Press/Politics, 23(1), 95–115. https://doi.org/10.1177/1940161217740697

Thorson, K., Vraga, E., & Ekdale, B. (2010). Credibility in Context: How Uncivil Online Commentary Affects News Credibility. Mass Communication & Society, 13(3), 289–313. https://doi.org/10.1080/15205430903225571

Törnberg, P. (2018). Echo chambers and viral misinformation: Modeling fake news as complex contagion. PLoS ONE, 13(9). https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0203958

Trump, K.-S., Rhody, J., Edick, C., & Weber, P. (2018). Social Media and Democracy: Assessing the State of the Field and Identifying Unexplored Questions. SocArXiv. https://doi.org/10.31235/osf.io/qe9p7

Tucker, J. A., Guess, A., Barbera, P., Vaccari, C., Siegel, A., Sanovich, S., Stukal, D., & Nyhan, B. (2018). Social Media, Political Polarization, and Political Disinformation: A Review of the Scientific Literature (SSRN Scholarly Paper ID 3144139). Social Science Research Network. https://doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.3144139

Vicario, M. D., Quattrociocchi, W., Scala, A., & Zollo, F. (2019). Polarization and Fake News: Early Warning of Potential Misinformation Targets. ACM Transactions on the Web, 13(2), 10:1-10:22. https://doi.org/10.1145/3316809

Weeks, B. E. (2015). Emotions, partisanship, and misperceptions: How anger and anxiety moderate the effect of partisan bias on susceptibility to political misinformation. Journal of Communication, 65(4), 699–719.


 

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