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Social Media and Credibility Indicator: the Effects of Bandwagon and Identity Cues Within Online Health and Risk Contexts

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Social Media and Credibility Indicator: the Effects of Bandwagon and Identity Cues Within Online Health and Risk Contexts University of Kentucky UKnowledge Theses and Dissertations--Communication Communication 2016 Social Media And Credibility Indicator: The Effects Of Bandwagon And Identity Cues Within Online Health And Risk Contexts Xialing Lin University of Kentucky, [email protected] Digital Object Identifier: http://dx.doi.org/10.13023/ETD.2016.059 Right click to open a feedback form in a new tab to let us know how this document benefits ou.y Recommended Citation Lin, Xialing, "Social Media And Credibility Indicator: The Effects Of Bandwagon And Identity Cues Within Online Health And Risk Contexts" (2016). Theses and Dissertations--Communication. 46. https://uknowledge.uky.edu/comm_etds/46 This Doctoral Dissertation is brought to you for free and open access by the Communication at UKnowledge. It has been accepted for inclusion in Theses and Dissertations--Communication by an authorized administrator of UKnowledge. For more information, please contact [email protected]. STUDENT AGREEMENT: I represent that my thesis or dissertation and abstract are my original work. Proper attribution has been given to all outside sources. I understand that I am solely responsible for obtaining any needed copyright permissions. I have obtained needed written permission statement(s) from the owner(s) of each third-party copyrighted matter to be included in my work, allowing electronic distribution (if such use is not permitted by the fair use doctrine) which will be submitted to UKnowledge as Additional File. I hereby grant to The University of Kentucky and its agents the irrevocable, non-exclusive, and royalty-free license to archive and make accessible my work in whole or in part in all forms of media, now or hereafter known. I agree that the document mentioned above may be made available immediately for worldwide access unless an embargo applies. I retain all other ownership rights to the copyright of my work. I also retain the right to use in future works (such as articles or books) all or part of my work. I understand that I am free to register the copyright to my work. REVIEW, APPROVAL AND ACCEPTANCE The document mentioned above has been reviewed and accepted by the student’s advisor, on behalf of the advisory committee, and by the Director of Graduate Studies (DGS), on behalf of the program; we verify that this is the final, approved version of the student’s thesis including all changes required by the advisory committee. The undersigned agree to abide by the statements above. Xialing Lin, Student Dr. Patric Spence, Major Professor Dr. Bobi Ivanov, Director of Graduate Studies SOCIAL MEDIA AND CREDIBILITY INDICATOR: THE EFFECTS OF BANDWAGON AND IDENTITY CUES WITHIN ONLINE HEALTH AND RISK CONTEXTS DISSERTATION A dissertation submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in the College of Communication and Information at the University of Kentucky By Xialing Lin Lexington, Kentucky Director: Dr. Patric Spence, Associate Professor, School of Information Science Lexington, Kentucky 2016 Copyright © Xialing Lin 2016 ABSTRACT OF DISSERTATION SOCIAL MEDIA AND CREDIBILITY INDICATOR: THE EFFECTS OF BANDWAGON AND IDENTITY CUES WITHIN ONLINE HEALTH AND RISK CONTEXTS Three studies were conducted to investigate how social media affordances influence individuals’ source credibility perceptions in risk situations. The MAIN model (Sundar, 2008), warranting theory (Walther & Parks, 2002), and signaling theory (Donath, 1999) served as the theoretical framework to examine the effects of bandwagon cues and identity cues embedded in retweets and users’ profile pages for health and risk online information processing. Study One examines whether bandwagon heuristics triggered by retweets would influence individuals’ source credibility judgments. Study Two investigates how bandwagon heuristics interact with different identity heuristics in credibility heuristics on an individual level. Study Three explores bandwagon heuristics at the organizational level. Three post-test only experiments with self-report online surveys were conducted to investigate the hypothesis and research questions. Results indicate that different online heuristic cues impact the judgments of competence, goodwill, and trustworthiness at different levels. Authority strongly influenced source credibility perceptions. A reverse-bandwagon effect was observed in influencing source credibility judgments. Theoretical and practical implications are discussed. KEYWORDS: MAIN Model, Bandwagon Heuristic, Identity Heuristics, Risk and Health, Twitter Xialing Lin April 19, 2016 Date SOCIAL MEDIA AND CREDIBILITY INDICATOR: THE EFFECTS OF BANDWAGON AND IDENTITY CUES WITHIN ONLINE HEALTH AND RISK CONTEXTS By Xialing Lin Dr. Patric Spence Director of Dissertation Dr. Bobi Ivanov Director of Graduate Studies April 19, 2016 ACKNOWLEDGMENTS Completion of this dissertation was impossible without the insights and support from several people. First, my advisor and dissertation chair, Dr. Patric Spence, plays a fundamental role in my professional and personal development. My Dissertation Committee and outside examiner, Dr. Timothy Sellnow, Dr. Deanna Sellnow, Dr. Xin Ma, and Dr. April Young, exemplify high-quality expertise that keeps inspiring me. I also wish to thank my family and friends, who always come with full of optimism and encouragement, providing me a positive social environment. Each of these individuals has demonstrated wisdom and goodness that guided and challenged my thinking, substantially lead me towards the completion of the doctoral program. Patric has been both of my master and doctoral advisor since 2011; I have been working with him for more than five years. He has been a tremendous mentor for me in both research, teaching, and life experience. Patric accepted me as his advisee when I was new to academia and struggling with acculturative stress. He provides me with every bit of guidance, assistance, proficiency, and patience, which encouraged me to build up my competence and confidence for my career. He has been involving me in his projects and generously bridges me to his networking; from there I have opportunities to construct academic collaborations with him and other outstanding scholars, such as Dr. Ken Lachlan, Dr. Tim Sellnow, and Dr. David Westerman. Patric gave me the freedom to venture into research, at the same time continuingly contributes valuable feedback, advice, and encouragement. He helped me to narrow down my dissertation foci as early as possible, set achievable research questions and objectives when I felt ready to venture into my dissertation, and provide academic and life advice whenever needed. He inspires me to grow into a risk and crisis research scientist. In addition to our academic collaboration, I greatly value the personal rapport that Patric and I have forged over the years. I am also very thankful to my committee members, Tim, Deanna, and Dr. Ma, for their time and valuable feedback on a preliminary version of this work. Tim and Deanna provided thoughtful suggestions and directions as early as the time I was preparing my doctoral examination, which contributes significant insights into the drafting of the literature review and discussion chapters. I am also indebted to Dr. Ma, who deliberately advised on my methods. It was a joyful experience to having all of them in my Doctoral Committee. It is fortunate for me to have Tim’s risk communication and Dr. Ma’s research method classes, which have had a substantial influence on my research. I also would like to acknowledge Deanna, who has been an inspiring role model for me. She and Tim show great wisdom, patience, and cheering, which also encourage me to undergird all of my endeavors. I also owe my appreciation to my parents. Although they are not physically by my side, they unconditionally support me at every stage of my personal life and longed to see iii this achievement come true. They respect every of my decision, gave me freedom to branch out into new life journey when I was little and pursuit whom I want to be. Words cannot express how grateful I am to my mother and father for all of the sacrifices they have made on my behalf. Their prayer for me has sustained me thus far. Last but not least, some faculty members, scholars, and friends have been kind enough to extend their help at various phases of my life whenever I approached them, and I do hereby acknowledge all of them. I thank Dr. Ken Lachlan, Dr. Bobi Ivanov, Dr. Amy Gaffney, and Dr. Brandi Frisby for all their goodness. iv TABLE OF CONTENTS CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION ....................................................................................1 Social Media and Crisis/Risk Communication ..............................................................1 Theoretical Framework Overview ................................................................................3 Organization of the Dissertation ...................................................................................7 CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW ..........................................................................9 The Roles of Social Media during Risk and Crises ..................................................... 10 Source Credibility and Its Role in Risk and Crises ..................................................... 13 Twitter and Heuristic Processing ................................................................................ 15 Warranting Theory ....................................................................................................
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