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Fake News and Social Media How Greek Users Identify and Curb Misinformation Online

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Fake News and Social Media How Greek Users Identify and Curb Misinformation Online Fake news and Social Media How Greek users identify and curb misinformation online George Mavridis Media and Communication Studies Master’s Thesis (2-year), 15 Credits Malmö University, June 22 2018 Examiner: Margareta Melin Supervisor: Ilkin Mehrabov K3 | School of Arts and Communication 1 Abstract The issue of fake news and its impact has become very prominent in recent years. Despite the fact that fake news is not a new phenomenon, technological advances have constructed a fertile environment for the fake news to be spread rapidly. Social media platforms, such as Facebook, Twitter or YouTube, offer ground for generation and distribution of fake news. Consequently, it is important to study the way social media operates, how fake news is produced and spread through social network sites and what is the role users play. In particular, this study examines the methods and tools Greek users implement in order to spot fake news on social media and counter its spread. Moreover, this research contributes to the theory of fake news by addressing the issue of users’ interaction with news and users’ collaboration in the information era. The data presented in this research was collected from the members of the Ellinika Hoaxes Facebook group, an online Greek community where users exchange knowledge and insights and they collaborate to spot fake news and counter its spread. Keywords: fake news, social media, Greek users, the act of authentication, social networking, activism, collaboration 2 Table of Contents 1. Introduction...............................................................................................................4 2. The Ellinika Hoaxes Facebook group.......................................................................6 2.1 Active users fight fake news...............................................................................6 2.2. Fake news in Greece..........................................................................................9 3. Theoretical Framework...........................................................................................11 3.1. Uses and Gratifications Theory.......................................................................11 3.2 Social media and fake news..............................................................................13 3.3. Bubbles, bots, and algorithms..........................................................................14 3.4. Users, re-sharing behavior, and fake news......................................................16 4. Literature Review...................................................................................................17 4.1 Fake news: An overview...................................................................................18 4.2 The motivation behind fake news.....................................................................20 4.3. Examples of well-known fake news................................................................20 5. Methodology: Online Survey..................................................................................22 5.1. Online Questionnaires......................................................................................22 5.2. Ethical Consideration.......................................................................................25 6. Empirical Study......................................................................................................27 6.1. The findings.....................................................................................................28 6.2. Analysis of the findings...................................................................................33 7. Conclusion-Discussion...........................................................................................40 References:..................................................................................................................43 Appendix.....................................................................................................................49 3 1. Introduction In the light of the recent attention to the role of social media in the dissemination of fake news about current political and social affairs, it is important to understand the way the audience interacts with disinformation on Social Network Sites (SNS). Fake news about current social or political issues is circulated on social media with tremendous speed (Mehrdad and Anna, 2017). These fake stories or hoaxes – deliberately or not – misinform or deceive audiences. Usually, these stories are created to either influence people's views, push a political agenda or cause confusion and can often be a profitable business for online publishers (Brennen, 2017). Fake news stories can deceive people since their sources are mainly using names and web addresses similar to reputable news organizations. There are also cases where fake news is produced by mistake, but it might also confuse and mislead audiences (Corner, 2017). Many people consume news and are informed about current political and social affairs from social media platforms and networks (Allcott and Gentzkow, 2017) and it can often be difficult to tell whether stories are credible or not. Information overload and a general lack of understanding of how the internet works, have also contributed to an increase in the fake news or hoax stories. Both social media and users can play a big part in increasing the spread of these types of stories (Spohr, 2017). However, there are individual users and groups of users who are taking action to counter the spread of fake news on social media. These groups of people and their actions are the focus of this research so that a more comprehensive framework of how users can identify and fight fake news can be developed. Social network organizations like Google and Facebook have announced new measures to tackle fake news with the introduction of reporting and flagging tools. Media organizations like the BBC and Channel 4 have also established fact-checking sites. While these are positive developments, digital media literacy and developing skills to critically evaluate information are essential skills for anyone navigating the internet (Mihailidis and Viotty, 2017). The vast amount of information available online and the rise of fake political news highlights the need for critical thinking (Burkhardt, 2017). Therefore, it is crucial to examine the users' acts of verification on spotting and curbing fake news on social media. The tools and methods they use to 4 identify a fake story, as well as the way they interact with it, can be used to obtain useful information about how users could potentially behave online to counter fake news on social media. This research aims at examining how the Greek users manage to identify fake news distributed online and what kind of acts of authentication do they follow in order to verify facts and data. The members of the Ellinika Hoaxes Facebook group were chosen as the research focus of this study. This specific Facebook group was chosen based on the fact that its members are users organized within the group in order to fight the spread of misleading information on social media. Moreover, the Ellinika Hoaxes and its members manage to spot fake news distributed on social media in Greece, on a daily basis, and they also contribute by providing their findings as a primarily source to prominent media outlets. For instance, there are cases where the members of the Ellinika Hoaxes identified a fake news story and then their findings were used by Greek newspapers as a source. Consequently, the mechanisms and tools these Greek users implement to counter fake stories are in need of examination, particularly as they provide insights about the way citizens interact with fake news about current political and social issues and the role they play in countering its spread. This research gathers quantitative data on what actions could be taken on the social media environment to give effective tools to more users to identify reliable and verified information about current social and political affairs and adapt to the challenges of the digital age. By examining the way Greek users interact with fake news and what methods they follow in order to counter its spread, this research collects useful insights which could be used as a guideline for the construction of a general strategy against fake news on social media. For this reason, the main Research Question (RQ) of this study needs to be answered: How the members of the Ellinika Hoaxes Facebook group detect and curb fake news on social media?. This RQ is supported by two sub-Research Questions, which were constructed in order to make the research even more focused and straightforward. To be more specific, the first one is ‘What specific actions of authentication do the members of the Ellinika Hoaxes Facebook group take in order to identify fake news on social media?’ and the second one is ‘How the members of the Ellinika Hoaxes Facebook group interact with fake news after they have detected it on social media?’. Basically, the second and the third RQs operate as a bridge to gather quantitative data to answer the first 5 main RQ of this study. To be more specific, the first aim was to collect responses about users’ tools and mechanisms during the acts of authentication. These mechanisms could be detected by investigating the way these Greek users spot a fake story. In order to fully understand the way these Greek users curb the spread of fake news on social media, responses
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