TY - JOUR
T1 - Dysfunctional information sharing on WhatsApp and Facebook
T2 - The role of political talk, cross-cutting exposure and social corrections
AU - Rossini, Patrícia
AU - Stromer-Galley, Jennifer
AU - Baptista, Erica Anita
AU - Veiga de Oliveira, Vanessa
N1 - Funding Information:
The author(s) disclosed receipt of the following financial support for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article: The fieldwork for this research was supported by a “WhatsApp Misinformation and Social Science Research Award” granted to the authors as an unrestricted gift.
Publisher Copyright:
© The Author(s) 2020.
PY - 2021/8
Y1 - 2021/8
N2 - In this study, we investigate dysfunctional information sharing on WhatsApp and Facebook, focusing on two explanatory variables—frequency of political talk and cross-cutting exposure—and potential remedies, such as witnessing, experiencing, and performing social corrections. Results suggest that dysfunctional sharing is pervasive, with nearly a quarter reporting sharing misinformation on Facebook and WhatsApp, but social corrections also occur relatively frequently. Platform matters, with corrections being more likely to be experienced or expressed on WhatsApp than Facebook. Taken together, our results suggest that the intimate nature of WhatsApp communication has important consequences for the dynamics of misinformation sharing, particularly with regard to facilitating social corrections.
AB - In this study, we investigate dysfunctional information sharing on WhatsApp and Facebook, focusing on two explanatory variables—frequency of political talk and cross-cutting exposure—and potential remedies, such as witnessing, experiencing, and performing social corrections. Results suggest that dysfunctional sharing is pervasive, with nearly a quarter reporting sharing misinformation on Facebook and WhatsApp, but social corrections also occur relatively frequently. Platform matters, with corrections being more likely to be experienced or expressed on WhatsApp than Facebook. Taken together, our results suggest that the intimate nature of WhatsApp communication has important consequences for the dynamics of misinformation sharing, particularly with regard to facilitating social corrections.
KW - Disinformation
KW - Facebook
KW - Misinformation
KW - Social media
KW - WhatsApp
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85086031086&partnerID=8YFLogxK
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U2 - 10.1177/1461444820928059
DO - 10.1177/1461444820928059
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85086031086
SN - 1461-4448
VL - 23
SP - 2430
EP - 2451
JO - New Media and Society
JF - New Media and Society
IS - 8
ER -