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Given concerns about the persuasive power of video misinformation on social media for health topics, we test two techniques - exposure to a news literacy video and user corrections - to limit the effects on misperceptions. An online sample of American adults from August of 2019 was randomly assigned to view two simulated Facebook videos. The first video manipulated the presence of news literacy concepts. The second video either promoted sunscreen use or made inaccurate claims regarding its dangers; scrolling comments either debunked or did not address the sunscreen misinformation in the video. Our results demonstrate that video misinformation heightened beliefs in sunscreen myths and reduced acceptance of sunscreen facts and intentions to wear sunscreen compared to a promotional video. Real-time user corrections were partially successful in reducing the effects of the misinformation video on beliefs but not intentions. Additionally, exposure to a news literacy video did not inoculate people to the misinformation. We discuss the implications of these findings for best practices regarding correcting video misinformation on health topics.

Research in parental mediation often focuses on how parents' practices for managing digital media are aligned with normative expectations. However, there is less research that explores parental mediation as a process, with practices changing over time in response to barriers and challenges. To address this gap, the goal of the current study is to examine parents' decisions around not monitoring or limiting adolescents' media use. Based on focus group discussions and interviews with predominantly female (77%) and White (92%) parents living in five communities in the Midwestern United States, we explore parental mediation as a process in which decisions about children's media use reflect competing individual, ideological, and structural factors. In eight focus groups (n = 48) and 13 follow-up interviews, we ask parents to narrate barriers to commonly suggested mediation strategies to examine how parents' navigate factors such as efficacy, conflict, or adolescent autonomy in managing digital media use. Based on the findings, we propose that looking at barriers illustrates mediation as a process of calibration, a decision that is made and re-made as parents navigate complex and sometimes contradictory situations and expectations. Prior State of Knowledge: Past studies on parental mediation of digital technology define a range of strategies like restriction or monitoring and explore factors predicting whether parents use these strategies. Less research examines how parents arrive at the decision to implement normative mediation strategies. Novel Contributions: We propose the term calibration to explain how barriers and challenges prompt shifts in parental mediation over time. Calibration captures how parents balance competing internal and external factors, like efficacy or norms, in engaging with adolescents about digital media use. Practical Implications: Conceptualizing mediation as calibration may help parents develop a toolbox of strategies that can shift as needed. In addition, focusing on values like autonomy helps parents choose which mediation strategies work for their family context and which may not. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study explores the role of political information seeking on social media and perceived exposure to misinformation in influencing online political engagement. A survey investigation of three Sub-Saharan African countries (Kenya, Nigeria, and South Africa) suggests that both information seeking and perceived exposure to misinformation are positively associated with online political engagement. We find that younger citizens are more actively engaged in online political activities. However, we also find that perceived exposure to misinformation has varying effects on political engagement across age groups. More frequent perceived exposure to misinformation is found to be a mobilizer for online political engagement for the older population. We conclude with a discussion of how social media may facilitate greater engagement for the older population. Still, the mobilizing role of misinformation exposure raises concerns about the consequences of such political engagement. Theoretical implications for political engagement research, in general and in the countries under study, are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Extending previous research, we test two solutions for addressing misinformation by pairing news literacy (NL) messages with corrective responses to health misinformation shared on Twitter. Importantly, we consider a range of outcomes, including not just credibility or misperceptions, but also feelings of news literacy and support for its value. Using an experiment, we find that user corrections of a meme containing false information reduced credibility assessments of the misinformation post and misperceptions but seeing misinformation also produced lower perceptions of personal news literacy and its value for society, regardless of whether it is corrected or not. Exposure to an NL message did not enhance the effectiveness of these corrective responses nor boost NL attitudes and may have generated cynicism. We discuss the challenges of designing NL messages for social media that achieve the wide range of goals news literacy interventions aspire to address. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This mixed-methods study considers why parents do not establish or maintain strategies to manage adolescents' media use. In focus groups and interviews, U.S. parents of adolescents (ages 10–17 years) described barriers including beliefs, attitudes, and values; concerns about family conflicts; and social-structural factors, such as burnout from other professional and parenting demands or how the actions of other parents constrained their own opportunities for mediation. We used this exploratory thematic analysis to develop a questionnaire tested with a national survey of U.S. parents. In factor analysis, barriers items clustered together as mediation roadblocks, issues that keep parents from initiating or continuing mediation even when they intend to; and mediation resistance, when parents question mediation practice that did not align with values like support for adolescent autonomy. Parents were much more likely to agree that values-based resistance to mediation was a barrier to monitoring or restricting adolescent media use. In addition, parents with older children and parents whose children reported that they had a controlling parenting style were more likely to agree with monitoring and restrictive mediation roadblocks. Our findings demonstrate that parental mediation research should consider how parents' values align, or contrast with, recommended practices and how the barriers parents encounter can be addressed to enable effective mediation. • This mixed-methods study asks why parents do not monitor or limit adolescents' digital media use. • Focus groups with U.S. parents identified barriers to mediation, which were tested in a national survey. • Parents identified efficacy, values like trust or autonomy, and concerns about conflict as barriers to parental mediation. • In the survey, trust, autonomy, and using digital media for socializing and education were the most important barriers. • Guidance for parents should address barriers to recommended practices like monitoring or limiting media use. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A number of solutions have been proposed to address concerns about misinformation online, including encouraging experts to engage in corrections of misinformation being shared and improving media literacy among the American public. This study combines these approaches to examine whether news literacy (NL) messages on social media enhance the effectiveness of expert correction of misinformation on Twitter. Two experiments suggest that expert organizations can successfully correct misinformation on social media across two controversial issues with a single tweet. However, three different NL messages did not improve the effectiveness of expert corrections. We discuss the difficulties of crafting NL messages that break through the clutter on social media and suggest guidelines for organizations attempting to address misinformation online. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We experimentally test whether expert organizations on social media can correct misperceptions of the scientific consensus on the safety of genetically modified (GM) food for human consumption, as well as what role social media cues, in the form of "likes," play in that process. We find expert organizations highlighting scientific consensus on GM food safety reduces consensus misperceptions among the public, leading to lower GM misperceptions and boosting related consumption behaviors in line with the gateway belief model. Expert organizations' credibility may increase as a result of correction, but popularity cues do not seem to affect misperceptions or credibility. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Amid growing concerns about misinformation on social media, scholars, educators, and commentators see news literacy as a means to improve critical media consumption. We use a nationally-representative sample to investigate the relationship between news literacy (NL), seeing and posting news and political content on social media, and skepticism toward information shared on social media. This study finds NL and related orientations contribute to who is seeing and sharing information on social media, with those who are more knowledgeable about media structures seeing and sharing less content. Moreover, those who are more news literate and value NL are more skeptical of information quality on social media. Seeing and posting news and political content on social media are not associated with skepticism. This study suggests that NL plays an important role in shaping perceptions of information shared online. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Media coverage of influencer marketing abounds with ethical questions about this emerging industry. Much of this coverage assumes influencers operate without an ethical framework and many social media personalities skirt around the edges of legal guidelines. Our study starts from the premise that influencer marketing is not inherently unethical but, rather, the ethical principles guiding production of sponsored content are not well understood. Through a case study of the travel and tourism media industry, our findings demonstrate that influencers use the concept of authenticity as an ethical framework when producing sponsored content. This ethics of authenticity is premised on two central tenets: being true to one's self and brand and being true to one's audience. This framework puts the influencers' brand identity and relationship with their audience at the forefront while simultaneously allowing them to profit from content designed to benefit brands and destinations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As concerns grow about the spread of misinformation through social media, scholars have called for improving the public's media literacy as a potential solution. This study examines the effectiveness of deploying news literacy (NL) messages on social media by testing whether NL tweets are able to affect perceptions of information credibility and NL beliefs. Using two experiments, this study tests NL tweets designed to (a) mitigate the impact of exposure to misinformation about two health issues (genetically modified foods and the flu vaccine) and (b) boost people's perceptions of their own media literacy and media literacy's value to society broadly. Findings suggest that NL messages are able to alter misinformation perceptions and NL beliefs, but not with a single message, suggesting the need to develop tailored and targeted NL campaigns that feature multiple messages and calls to action. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In March 2018, British and American news outlets published extensive reporting on Cambridge Analytica's (CA) ethically and legally questionable activities in political campaigns around the world. This reporting primarily focused on three issues: data privacy and protection, unethical political campaigning on social media, and foreign involvement in national elections. While much attention has been paid to CA's work in the US and UK, these exposés also provided details about CA's work in presidential elections in Nigeria and Kenya. Because little attention has been paid to CA's work in Africa, we conducted a qualitative textual analysis of four Nigerian and Kenyan newspapers to understand how media in these countries grappled with CA's role in their respective presidential elections. Our findings demonstrate, first, that newspaper coverage in both countries relied heavily on international reporting, and second, while Nigerian newspapers covered the scandal as an intranational conflict between competing political parties, the Kenyan press wrestled with the scandal's implications for the country's democratic institutions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study investigates how nonprofit organizations use hyperlinks embedded in tweets for strategic communication during global health crises. Within the 1,494 links included in tweets about Ebola, organizations shared owned and earned media, including news stories directly or indirectly referencing their work and positive mentions from others on social media. Links allowed organizations to raise awareness about Ebola in West Africa, promote their work, and highlight endorsements from news media and influential users. Raising awareness and building trust are key steps in becoming credible sources during highly uncertain crises. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study investigates the site of intersection between legacy and social media, whereby it asks how local legacy media (St Louis Post-Dispatch and Richmond Times-Dispatch) invoked social media (Facebook and Twitter) discourse within their coverage of the Ferguson (2014) and Charlottesville (2017) events. It thus explores how gatekeeping is manifested and, consequently, how the protest paradigm emerged in a news landscape of proliferating social media. Thematic textual analysis indicates that coverage of Charlottesville and Ferguson clearly relied on indulging the social media sphere in important ways. Common themes of social media as multipurpose platforms, as interfacing with law and order, and as reconciling material and digital modes culminating in social activism were revealed. The study shows that the protest paradigm that has long characterized legacy media's coverage of social protest is not as "pure" as it may once have been, since a social media component is helping define the contours and content of legacy media's landscape. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Although Twitter chats and other forms of social media engagement events are idealized in the literature as opportunities for dialogic communication between organizations and individuals, less is known about how engagement is operationalized within these spaces. Using textual and content analysis, we conducted two studies to explore how health organizations engage with the public via Twitter chats during the Ebola and Zika outbreaks. In official records of Ebola chats, the organization addressed both hostile and neutral public questions that pressed for specification of disease characteristics and protocol. However, in a content analysis of all public tweets sent during a later Zika chat, we found that questions were privileged, and other tweet forms and themes were excluded from the participatory space. Specifically, public comments demonstrating expertise or extending the topic of the chat were not addressed by the organization. Our analysis provides insight into the implicit rules governing how organizations engage with the public online during a rapidly evolving health crisis. We argue that the question–response dyad is a form of ideal communication that suggests engagement but maintains organizational expertise. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Trust in many government organizations is low, creating a challenging environment for communication during outbreaks of emerging infectious diseases, like Ebola. In a thematic analysis of 1,010 tweets and four Twitter chats during the 2014-2015 Ebola outbreak, we found that the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention emphasized organizational competence, extant protocol, and facts about transmission to manage public fear. We argue that an emphasis on certainty in a rapidly changing situation leaves organizations vulnerable to charges of unpreparedness or obfuscation. Our results also speak to the contested definition of engagement online, particularly during health crises. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article examines an entertainment-education program, The Team, which began airing in Kenya after the 2007–2008 postelection violence. The show promotes cooperation and national unity among Kenyans through the metaphor of Kenya as a football (soccer) team. The focus of this article is twofold: viewers’ identification with and reaction to certain morally ambiguous characters and audience members’ interaction with the program through the online social networking site Facebook. We argue that the producers’ attempt to create less didactic storylines and more complex characters resulted in unanticipated audience opposition to the death of a character the producers understood to be negative but audience members viewed as sympathetic. Second, the adoption of social media resulted in less controlled discussions in which Facebook users occasionally questioned, challenged, and sought to reshape the producers’ goals and strategies. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]