Jessica F. Sparks , Renee Mitson , Jieun Shin , Jean D. Louis
{"title":"Real connections in fake news: analysis of linking behaviors of fake news websites","authors":"Jessica F. Sparks , Renee Mitson , Jieun Shin , Jean D. Louis","doi":"10.1016/j.tele.2025.102343","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.tele.2025.102343","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>This study examines the hyperlinking behavior of fake news sites and compares it to trustworthy website behavior through an analysis of more than 300 fake news websites and a matching set of trustworthy news websites in the United States. Utilizing a community ecology theoretical framework, the present study shows evidence that fake news websites are using strategies similar to well-known, reliable news outlets when it comes to their linking behaviors, but with some differences. Primarily, both fake and trustworthy news websites use linking strategies that work in favor of keeping audiences on their own sites and the publications’ parent-company properties, but at significantly different rates. Additionally, fake news websites are more likely to link to trustworthy news websites than other fake news outside of parent ownership, supporting previous research that suggests this is an effort for credibility transference.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":48257,"journal":{"name":"Telematics and Informatics","volume":"104 ","pages":"Article 102343"},"PeriodicalIF":8.3,"publicationDate":"2026-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145749622","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"管理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Roberto Ulloa , Juhi Kulshrestha , Celina Kacperski
{"title":"Opting out of generative AI: a behavioral experiment examining the role of education in Perplexity AI avoidance","authors":"Roberto Ulloa , Juhi Kulshrestha , Celina Kacperski","doi":"10.1016/j.tele.2025.102346","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.tele.2025.102346","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>The rise of conversational AI (CAI), powered by large language models, is transforming how individuals access and interact with digital information. However, these tools may inadvertently amplify existing digital inequalities. This study investigates whether differences in formal education are associated with CAI avoidance, i.e., the deliberate refusal or discontinuation of engaging with a CAI when the opportunity and demand arises. We leverage behavioral data from an online experiment (N = 1636) where participants were randomly assigned to one of three groups: a control group, a traditional online search task, or a CAI task (Perplexity AI). Task avoidance (operationalized as survey abandonment or providing unrelated responses during task assignment) was significantly higher in the CAI group (51 %) compared to the search (30.9 %) and control (16.8 %) groups, with the highest CAI avoidance among participants with lower education levels (∼74.4 %). Structural equation modeling based on the theoretical framework UTAUT2 and LASSO regressions reveal that education is strongly associated with CAI avoidance, even after accounting for various cognitive and affective predictors of technology adoption. These findings underscore education’s central role in shaping AI adoption and the role of self-selection biases in AI-related research, stressing the need for inclusive design to ensure equitable access to emerging technologies.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":48257,"journal":{"name":"Telematics and Informatics","volume":"104 ","pages":"Article 102346"},"PeriodicalIF":8.3,"publicationDate":"2026-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145798344","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"管理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Yihong Long , Kexin Yang , Ran Huang , Guoping Yuan , Yi Xia
{"title":"Enhancing citizen satisfaction with mobile government services in China: The mediating role of trust in service quality and perceived value","authors":"Yihong Long , Kexin Yang , Ran Huang , Guoping Yuan , Yi Xia","doi":"10.1016/j.tele.2025.102355","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.tele.2025.102355","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>This study examines citizen satisfaction with mobile government services in China through the Stimulus–Organism–Response perspective. Survey data from 617 users were analyzed with variance-based structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM). The model links technical service quality to citizens’ cognitive appraisal and trust and evaluates their association with satisfaction. Results indicate that higher service quality is associated with greater perceived value and stronger trust, and these appraisals relate positively to satisfaction. Measurement and structural assessments show acceptable reliability, validity, and explanatory power. The findings clarify psychological mechanisms underlying evaluations of mobile public services and suggest management levers focused on experience optimization, transparency, and trust building to enhance citizen satisfaction.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":48257,"journal":{"name":"Telematics and Informatics","volume":"104 ","pages":"Article 102355"},"PeriodicalIF":8.3,"publicationDate":"2026-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145705595","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"管理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Adolescents’ behavior patterns in virtual spaces and their integration into physical urban environments: An empirical investigation using high-resolution data","authors":"Amnon Franco , Jonatan Almagor , Amit Birenboim","doi":"10.1016/j.tele.2025.102363","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.tele.2025.102363","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>This study provides empirical, data-driven insights into adolescents’ evolving virtual space usage patterns, primarily driven by the widespread adoption of ubiquitous digital devices like smartphones. By integrating high-resolution GPS data with mobile phone app usage logs, the study identifies diverse usage types and distinct temporal patterns of virtual space engagement, highlighting their association with characteristics of the physical environment. Contrary to expectations, longer smartphone usage in general and at home does not come at the expense of time spent outdoors. Moreover, outdoor environments were characterized by longer and more frequent virtual space engagement through smartphones, with suburban participants showing more process-oriented (e.g., games, streaming services) usage compared to city center adolescents. Gender differences were observed in some contexts, with girls showing a greater tendency to engage with social virtual activities and boys with process usage. Additionally, specific usage patterns were found to be associated with distinct environmental characteristics, including distance from home, green spaces and built area density. Our findings align with recent geographical research frameworks, such as fused and hybrid spaces, which theorize current virtual space as being intertwined with and inseparable from the physical space. This perspective underscores the need to study these spaces jointly to fully understand urban spaces and human spatial behavior.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":48257,"journal":{"name":"Telematics and Informatics","volume":"104 ","pages":"Article 102363"},"PeriodicalIF":8.3,"publicationDate":"2026-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145884742","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"管理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Sunyoung Park , Dongjae Kim , Minhwa Cho , Doha Kim , S. Shyam Sundar , Jinyoung Han , Eunil Park
{"title":"How private is private enough? Evaluating facial de-identification across changing social contexts","authors":"Sunyoung Park , Dongjae Kim , Minhwa Cho , Doha Kim , S. Shyam Sundar , Jinyoung Han , Eunil Park","doi":"10.1016/j.tele.2025.102342","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.tele.2025.102342","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>The proliferation of social networking services and generative artificial intelligence has intensified the tension between the desire for social connection and the growing risks to facial privacy. Although technical methods for facial de-identification have been developed, they often fail to reflect how users experience privacy and how it is shaped by the social contexts in which the images are shared. This study explores how users’ experiences vary depending on the degree of generative AI-based facial de-identification and the relationship between the viewer and the person in the image. We conducted a user study with 36 participants who evaluated modified versions of their own photos in neutral or negative social scenarios. Greater facial de-identification yielded stronger privacy control and a reduced sense of risk. However, when imagining an adversarial social connection, it increased privacy concerns and reduced trust, indicating that privacy judgment is highly contextual. Participants desired more control over how their image could be modified, as well as more customization options, while defining user groups based on social relationships. Based on these suggestions, we redesigned our system to offer more flexible and socially responsive privacy options. This study challenges a purely technical view of privacy, arguing that it is a social, interpretive, and dynamic process negotiated within specific relationships. Ultimately, our findings provide both empirical insights and practical design guidance for creating privacy-preserving systems that are more meaningfully aligned with the lived realities of users.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":48257,"journal":{"name":"Telematics and Informatics","volume":"103 ","pages":"Article 102342"},"PeriodicalIF":8.3,"publicationDate":"2025-12-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145579555","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"管理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Adrian Rauchfleisch , Joshua Philip Suarez , Nikka Marie Sales , Andreas Jungherr
{"title":"Winning and losing with Artificial Intelligence: What public discourse about ChatGPT tells us about how societies make sense of technological change","authors":"Adrian Rauchfleisch , Joshua Philip Suarez , Nikka Marie Sales , Andreas Jungherr","doi":"10.1016/j.tele.2025.102344","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.tele.2025.102344","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Public product launches in Artificial Intelligence can serve as focusing events for collective attention, surfacing how societies react to technological change. Social media provide a window into the sensemaking around these events, surfacing hopes and fears and showing who chooses to engage in the discourse and when. We demonstrate that public sensemaking about AI is shaped by economic interests and cultural values of those involved. We analyze 3.8 million tweets posted by 1.6 million users across 117 countries in response to the public launch of ChatGPT in 2022. Our analysis shows how economic self-interest, proxied by occupational skill types in writing, programming, and mathematics, and national cultural orientations, as measured by Hofstede’s individualism, uncertainty avoidance, and power distance dimensions, shape who speaks, when they speak, and their stance toward ChatGPT. Roles requiring more technical skills, such as programming and mathematics, tend to engage earlier and express more positive stances, whereas writing-centric occupations join later with greater skepticism. At the cultural level, individualism predicts both earlier engagement and a more negative stance, and uncertainty avoidance reduces the prevalence of positive stances but does not delay when users first engage with ChatGPT. Aggregate sentiment trends mask the dynamics observed in our study. The shift toward a more critical stance regarding ChatGPT over time stems primarily from the entry of more skeptical voices rather than a change of heart among early adopters. Our findings underscore the importance of both the occupational background and cultural context in understanding public reactions to AI.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":48257,"journal":{"name":"Telematics and Informatics","volume":"103 ","pages":"Article 102344"},"PeriodicalIF":8.3,"publicationDate":"2025-12-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145579563","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"管理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"The authenticity Paradox of political AI Chatbots: Effects on candidate Credibility, social Presence, and voting intentions","authors":"Yu-Hao Lee , Chien Wen (Tina) Yuan","doi":"10.1016/j.tele.2025.102339","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.tele.2025.102339","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Generative AI chatbots allow political candidates around the world to engage potential voters in personalized conversations on a massive scale. This study examines how interactive and personalized affordances of AI influence potential voters’ perceptions of political candidates and their intentions to vote for the candidate. Through an online experiment (<em>n</em> = 739), the study compares the effects of an AI chatbot with a traditional campaign video on voter perceptions of candidate credibility, authenticity, and social presence. Findings reveal that while AI chatbots enhance likability and social presence, they struggle to convey the same level of trust and authenticity as traditional campaign videos. The AI chatbot’s ability to foster behavioral interdependence significantly increased participants’ intentions to vote for the candidate by creating a stronger sense of connection with the candidate. However, the chatbot’s inherent artificiality diminished perceptions of authenticity, particularly ordinariness, which negatively influenced intentions to vote for the candidate. This study advances our understanding of mediated politician–voter interactions by revealing how GenAI chatbots, unlike traditional social media, enable explicitly artificial yet personalized and interactive exchanges that shape voter perceptions and behaviors, offering new insights into mass-personalized political communication in the era of generative AI.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":48257,"journal":{"name":"Telematics and Informatics","volume":"103 ","pages":"Article 102339"},"PeriodicalIF":8.3,"publicationDate":"2025-12-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145425608","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"管理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Martin Hilbert , Drew P. Cingel , Jingwen Zhang , Samantha L. Vigil , Jane Shawcroft , Haoning Xue , Arti Thakur , Zubair Shafiq
{"title":"#BigTech @Minors: social media algorithms have actionable knowledge about child users and at-risk teens","authors":"Martin Hilbert , Drew P. Cingel , Jingwen Zhang , Samantha L. Vigil , Jane Shawcroft , Haoning Xue , Arti Thakur , Zubair Shafiq","doi":"10.1016/j.tele.2025.102341","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.tele.2025.102341","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>This study explores whether social media platforms’ proprietary recommendation algorithms could possess actionable knowledge about the age and potential vulnerabilities of minors who misrepresent their age during account creation. Our results show that the algorithms of YouTube, Instagram, and TikTok quickly and confidently adjust (unsolicited) recommendations for accounts with behavioral traits from underage users after just one online session. Users behaving like 8-year-olds receive almost seven times more child-directed content than their 16-year-old peers. The tailoring of commercial offerings demonstrates that providers possess sufficient knowledge to prompt action. By law, children under the age of 13 are prohibited from being in a commercial space that collects personal data without parental consent. Algorithms also reacted to accounts behaving like struggling adolescents, which received over 30% more problematic- and over 70% more distressing content than their non-struggling peers. The visible adjustment of content offerings, based on this demonstrable detection ability, raises the question of whether and how this communicated information from the algorithms could be used to enhance protections of minors. This algorithm audit is part of a wider research agenda showcasing the feasibility and value of independent audits to address (often unintended) loopholes stemming from automated algorithmic decision-making processes.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":48257,"journal":{"name":"Telematics and Informatics","volume":"103 ","pages":"Article 102341"},"PeriodicalIF":8.3,"publicationDate":"2025-12-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145579564","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"管理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Mengxiao Zhu , Yating Xu , Lin Liu , Songbo Yang , Chunke Su
{"title":"Collaborative content generation on social media platforms: Social capital, team dynamics, and viewer engagement","authors":"Mengxiao Zhu , Yating Xu , Lin Liu , Songbo Yang , Chunke Su","doi":"10.1016/j.tele.2025.102340","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.tele.2025.102340","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Collaborative content generation, in which multiple creators work together as teams to produce original content, is increasingly prevalent on social media platforms. Despite this growing popularity, our understanding of what team compositions can enhance the performance of collaboratively generated content remains largely underexplored. Drawing on social capital theory, this study investigates the effects of bonding and bridging social capital of creator teams on viewer engagement with their collaboratively generated content. Moreover, this study examines how these effects are contingent on team size and content length. To empirically test the research model, the researchers collected 1343 collaboratively generated videos from Bilibili, a leading video-sharing platform in China. By employing social network analysis and ordinary least squares regression, the results indicated that bonding and bridging social capital, derived from prior collaborative relationships, had positive effects on viewer engagement. Furthermore, the impact of bonding social capital was more pronounced in larger teams than in smaller teams, whereas the effect of bridging social capital was stronger for shorter content than for longer content. Overall, this study enhances the understanding of how to harness the power of collaborative content generation to achieve desirable content performance. The theoretical and practical implications of the findings are discussed.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":48257,"journal":{"name":"Telematics and Informatics","volume":"103 ","pages":"Article 102340"},"PeriodicalIF":8.3,"publicationDate":"2025-12-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145365712","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"管理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Artificial influencers, artificial designs? A systematic review of experimental research on virtual influencers","authors":"Sofie Vranken , Jaroslava Kaňková , Jörg Matthes","doi":"10.1016/j.tele.2025.102327","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.tele.2025.102327","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>With the rapid evolutions in AI technology, a new type of influencer has emerged in the social media landscape – virtual influencers (VIs). These digitally created individuals have proven highly effective in promoting products, brands, opinions, and behaviors. So far, research has already shed light on the unique characteristics and effects of VIs. However, we lack a systematic discussion about experimental designs, which is a key design to understand the effectiveness of VIs. In a preregistered systematic review of <em>N</em> = 157 experiments, we examine how such studies are designed, the effects they measure, and the main moderating and mediating variables involved. Most studies test disclosure effects rather than the core persuasive features of virtual influencers, raising concerns about ecological validity. We discuss methodological implications and suggest directions for more ecologically valid experimental designs.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":48257,"journal":{"name":"Telematics and Informatics","volume":"102 ","pages":"Article 102327"},"PeriodicalIF":8.3,"publicationDate":"2025-10-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145118673","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"管理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}