Who Shares Fake News Intentionally and Unintentionally on Social Media? The Case of Facebook Users in Poland

By exploring users' engagement in communication and their social media literacy (SML), this study examines who shares fake news on Facebook intentionally and unintentionally. A two-phase online survey has been conducted among 1,000 active Facebook users in Poland. We found that users engaged in...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published inPolish sociological review no. 226; pp. 169 - 187
Main Authors Filipek, Kamil, Chodak, Jaroslaw
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published Warsaw Polskie Towarzystwo Socjologiczne (Polish Sociological Association) 01.01.2024
Subjects
Communication
Educational attainment
False information
Mass media
Media literacy
News media
Occupational status
Social media
Social networks
Sociodemographics
Poland
Online AccessGet full text

Cover

More Information
Summary:By exploring users' engagement in communication and their social media literacy (SML), this study examines who shares fake news on Facebook intentionally and unintentionally. A two-phase online survey has been conducted among 1,000 active Facebook users in Poland. We found that users engaged in communication on multiple social media platforms tend to share fake news intentionally. There is a negative relationship between SML score and intentional sharing. However, those with higher functional consumption scores (the dimension of SML) tend to share fake news intentionally. Men are less likely to share fake news unintentionally. The cross-tabulation of classes and variables related to social media use revealed that users with lower level of salary, education and occupational status are most likely to share fake news both intentionally and unintentionally.
ISSN:1231-1413
2657-4276
DOI:10.26412/psr226.04