{"title":"Fake news virality: Relational niches and the diffusion of COVID-19 vaccine misinformation","authors":"Chen-Shuo Hong","doi":"10.1016/j.ssresearch.2024.103004","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"<div><p>This study explores why some fake news publishers are able to propagate misinformation while others receive little attention on social media. Using COVID-19 vaccine tweets as a case study, this study combined the relational niche framework with pooled and multilevel models that address the unobserved heterogeneity. The results showed that, as expected, ties to accounts with more followers were associated with more fake news tweets, retweets, and likes. However, more surprisingly, embedding with fake news publishers had an inverted U-shaped association with diffusion, whereas social proximity to mainstream media was positively associated. Although the effect of influential users is in line with opinion leader theory, the newly-identified effects of social proximity to reliable sources and embeddedness suggest that the key to fake news virality is to earn greater organizational status and modest, not overly, echo chambers. This study highlights the potential of dynamic media networks to shape the misinformation market.</p></div>","PeriodicalId":48338,"journal":{"name":"Social Science Research","volume":"120 ","pages":"Article 103004"},"PeriodicalIF":3.2000,"publicationDate":"2024-03-30","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":"0","resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"Social Science Research","FirstCategoryId":"90","ListUrlMain":"https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0049089X24000267","RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"","PubModel":"","JCR":"Q1","JCRName":"SOCIOLOGY","Score":null,"Total":0}
引用次数: 0
Abstract
This study explores why some fake news publishers are able to propagate misinformation while others receive little attention on social media. Using COVID-19 vaccine tweets as a case study, this study combined the relational niche framework with pooled and multilevel models that address the unobserved heterogeneity. The results showed that, as expected, ties to accounts with more followers were associated with more fake news tweets, retweets, and likes. However, more surprisingly, embedding with fake news publishers had an inverted U-shaped association with diffusion, whereas social proximity to mainstream media was positively associated. Although the effect of influential users is in line with opinion leader theory, the newly-identified effects of social proximity to reliable sources and embeddedness suggest that the key to fake news virality is to earn greater organizational status and modest, not overly, echo chambers. This study highlights the potential of dynamic media networks to shape the misinformation market.
本研究探讨了为什么一些假新闻发布者能够传播错误信息，而另一些则在社交媒体上很少受到关注。本研究以 COVID-19 疫苗推文为案例，将关系利基框架与解决未观察到的异质性的集合和多层次模型相结合。结果表明，正如预期的那样，与拥有更多粉丝的账户的联系与更多的假新闻推文、转发和点赞有关。然而，更令人惊讶的是，与假新闻发布者的嵌入与传播呈倒 U 型关系，而与主流媒体的社交关系则呈正相关。尽管有影响力的用户的影响符合意见领袖理论，但新发现的与可靠消息来源的社会接近性和嵌入性的影响表明，假新闻病毒式传播的关键在于赢得更高的组织地位和适度而非过度的回声室。本研究强调了动态媒体网络塑造虚假信息市场的潜力。
期刊介绍：
Social Science Research publishes papers devoted to quantitative social science research and methodology. The journal features articles that illustrate the use of quantitative methods in the empirical solution of substantive problems, and emphasizes those concerned with issues or methods that cut across traditional disciplinary lines. Special attention is given to methods that have been used by only one particular social science discipline, but that may have application to a broader range of areas.
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