Traceability and Credibility Making: A Way to Improve News Credibility
Poster Number
10
Introduction/Abstract
In digital age, fake news is a global issue. At present, digital news was often organized in five parts: title, author, platform, published time and news text. So, when we read a news, it’s hard to check the original source of the news, and it’s also difficult to judge whether the news is true or not. These are two major challenges for audience. A fake news may be forwarded thousands of times, just because readers have very few information to make a right judgement about the credibility of the news.
Purpose
Based on the current frame and structure of digital news, this research aims to propose a new structure of digital news distribution, including more information, such as the original source, the credibility description about the author and the platform. So, when people read a news, they can also have access to the original source about the news, and they can check the credibility of the author and the platform. According to such information, people can make judge whether the news is true or not, further, they could decide whether they should forward the news or not. As a result, this proposed new structure of digital news distribution will be helpful to prevent fake news from socializing the public, and enhance the credibility of digital news.
Method
The current study takes a qualitative approach to use three focus groups to let people voice their needs and wants in using the new digital news structure. The researchers will hold select college students as participants and let them discuss the pros and cons of using the new digital news structure. It is anticipated that several major themes will be generated through the focus group discussion and these discussion results will help the research revise the digital news structure so that the new structure can be adopted and promoted. The following are the question route for focus group investigation:
1) How do you feel about fake news?
2) To what extent, does fake news bother you in your news consumption?
3) How likely do you want to use the proposed news structure for digital news distribution?
4) In order to let more people adopt the new structure, what elements should be enhanced or revised?
5) In short, any comments and suggestions for developing the new structure for digital news distribution?
Results
As we are moving into the data collection stage, we anticipate that the focus group investigation is expected to generate a lot of ideas, thoughts and suggestions for improving and enhancing the new structure for digital news distribution. As some anticipated results, we believe that the focus group participants will focus their attention on the following characteristics of new structure of digital news distribution.
Case 1: [The Original]
Case 2: [Original] Author (Reliability Description), Media platform (Reliability Description)
[source] Author (Reliability Description), Media platform (Reliability Description)
Case 3: [Original] Author (Reliability Description), Media platform (Reliability Description)
[reference] Author (Reliability Description), Media platform (Reliability Description)
In the first case, the news itself be the Original source. Tag format is just two words: The Original. In the second case, the news was forward from another news, there is no change. Tag format has two lines, the first line describes the original source, the key word is Original. The second line describes the news directly come from, the key words is Source. In the third case, the news was edited from another news, the Tag also has two lines, the first line is just the same as the second case, but the second line is different, the key word is Reference.
Significance
This kind of tags is very helpful for people to identify whether a news is credible or not, and check the original source. So, we would like to suggest the findings of the research to news distribution outlets, and other news platforms. If the solution is accepted and used, we strongly believe that it will offer significant assistance to prevent fake news from socializing the public, particularly, those vulnerable population.
Location
DeRosa University Center
Format
Poster Presentation
Poster Session
Morning
Traceability and Credibility Making: A Way to Improve News Credibility
DeRosa University Center
In digital age, fake news is a global issue. At present, digital news was often organized in five parts: title, author, platform, published time and news text. So, when we read a news, it’s hard to check the original source of the news, and it’s also difficult to judge whether the news is true or not. These are two major challenges for audience. A fake news may be forwarded thousands of times, just because readers have very few information to make a right judgement about the credibility of the news.
