Understanding How Readers Determine the Legitimacy of Online Medical News Articles in the Era of Fake News

• Published in: Disease Control Through Social Network Surveillance pp. 55 - 75
• Main Authors: Pidikiti, Srihaasa, Zhang, Jason Shuo, Han, Richard, Lehman, Tamara Silbergleit, Lv, Qin, Mishra, Shivakant
• Format: Book Chapter
• Language: English
• Published: Switzerland Springer International Publishing AG 2022; Springer International Publishing
• Series: Lecture Notes in Social Networks
• Subjects: Critical thinking; Fake news; Social media; Source
• ISBN: 3031078683; 9783031078682
• ISSN: 2190-5428; 2190-5436
• DOI: 10.1007/978-3-031-07869-9_3

The rapid spread of fake news during the COVID-19 pandemic has aggravated the situation and made it extremely difficult for the World Health Organization and government officials to inform people only with accurate scientific findings. Misinformation dissemination was so unhindered that social media sites had to ultimately conceal posts related to COVID-19 entirely and allow users to see only the WHO or government-approved information. This action had to be taken because newsreaders lack the ability to efficiently discern fact from fiction and thereby indirectly aid in the spread of fake news believing it to be true. Our work helps in understanding the thought process of an individual when reading a news article. This information can further be used to develop their critical thinking ability. We expand the space of misinformation’s impact on users by conducting our own surveys to understand the factors consumers deem most important when deciding if some piece of information is true or not. Results from our study show that what people perceive to be important in deciding what is true information is different when confronted with the actual articles. We also find that prior beliefs and political leanings affect the ability of people to detect the legitimacy of the information.