Aud udie ience nce Mot Motiv ivations ations for or Sh Shari ring ng Di Dis- and d Mi Misin infor ormation: mation: A Co Comp mparativ rative St Stud udy y in in Five ive (Four our and d a Ha Half lf) ) Sub ub-Sahara aharan n Afri rica can n Co Coun untries tries Dani Madri rid-Moral rales, es, U of Ho Houst ston on | @DMadri Madrid_M d_M | | www.d .dani nimadr madrid.ne id.net Herman n Wasser serma man, n, U of Cape pe Town | @hwasser asser Ad Admire ire Mare, Namibia ibia U of Science nce and Technolog hnology y | @admi mire2ma e2mare Khulekani ni Ndlovu, vu, U of Cape pe Town Melissa ssa Tully, U of Iowa a |@tul ullyme yme Emeka a Lucky y Um Umeje jei, American ican U of Nigeria ia| | @emek mekau aumejei mejei 2019/10/04 04 Comparat arativ ive e Approaches oaches to to Disinf infor ormation ation Works kshop op | Harvar ard d Univ iver ersity ity 1
Old wine in a new bottle Source: https://twitter.com/ndula_victor/status/1001123438604554245 2019/10/04 04 Comparat arativ ive e Approaches oaches to to Disinf infor ormation ation Works kshop op | Harvar ard d Univ iver ersity ity 2
Disinformation in Sub-Saharan Africa – A research agenda Exploratory three-country nonprobability online survey 2019/10/04 04 Comparat arativ ive e Approaches oaches to to Disinf infor ormation ation Works kshop op | Harvar ard d Univ iver ersity ity 3
How often do you come across news stories about politics and government online that you think are not ot fully ly acc ccurat rate ? ( N = 2,784) 60% 50% 40% Source: Wasserman & Madrid-Morales (2019) 30% 20% 10% 0% Never Hardly Ever Sometimes Often Kenya Nigeria South Africa USA 2019/10/04 04 Comparat arativ ive e Approaches oaches to to Disinf infor ormation ation Works kshop op | Harvar ard d Univ iver ersity ity 4
How often do you come across news stories about politics and government online that you think are co completely letely made e up ? ( N = 2,784) 60% 50% 40% Source: Wasserman & Madrid-Morales (2019) 30% 20% 10% 0% Never Hardly Ever Sometimes Often Kenya Nigeria South Africa USA 2019/10/04 04 Comparat arativ ive e Approaches oaches to to Disinf infor ormation ation Works kshop op | Harvar ard d Univ iver ersity ity 5
Have you ever shared a political news story online that you later r fo found out was made up? ( N = 2,784) 90% 80% 70% 60% Source: Wasserman & Madrid-Morales (2019) 50% 40% 30% 20% 10% 0% No Yes Kenya Nigeria South Africa USA 2019/10/04 04 Comparat arativ ive e Approaches oaches to to Disinf infor ormation ation Works kshop op | Harvar ard d Univ iver ersity ity 6
Have you ever shared a political news story online that you thought at the time was made up? ( N = 2,784) 90% 80% 70% 60% Source: Wasserman & Madrid-Morales (2019) 50% 40% 30% 20% 10% 0% No Yes Kenya Nigeria South Africa USA 2019/10/04 04 Comparat arativ ive e Approaches oaches to to Disinf infor ormation ation Works kshop op | Harvar ard d Univ iver ersity ity 7
Unanswered questions Our previous work helped us understand how much we still don’t und nderstand stand about the spread of mis- and disinformation in Sub- Saharan Africa… 1. Can these results be re repl plicat cated among those with lower levels of formal education? 2. Are the patterns identified in these three media saturated countries applicable to ot other r Afric rican an nations ns ? 3. What is the di dire recti ction n of the re relationsh tionship between exposure to “fake media” and decreasing media trust? 4. What makes Kenyans, Nigerians and South Africans sha hare re ina naccura ccurate news news rather frequently? 2019/10/04 04 Comparat arativ ive e Approaches oaches to to Disinf infor ormation ation Works kshop op | Harvar ard d Univ iver ersity ity 8
News sharing A wide range of individual and societal motivations for sharing dis- & mis-information have been identified in different socio-political contexts. In “advanced” democracies, it responds to “‘ chaot otic ic ’ motivations to “burn down” the entire established democratic ‘cosmos’” (Petersen, Osmundsen, & Arceneaux, 2018) In the UK, people share inaccurate information to “ express ss their feelin ings gs ”; “to inform m ot others ”, and ”to find out other people’s opinions ” (Chadwick & Vaccari, 2019) In Singapore, “fake news” & rumors are shared to “cope with uncertain ainty , build d re relationships tionships , and for self lf-enhan enhanceme ement nt ” (Duffy, Tandoc & Ling, 2019) In Kenya and Nigeria, sharing information is… (Chakrabarti, Rooney, & Kewon, 2018) a form of social al curr rren ency cy that derives from a desire to be “in the know” a civic ic duty to share warnings of impeding crises or disasters a democratic right - inform nformation tion is demo mocr cratic atic and needs to be shared. 2019/10/04 04 Comparat arativ ive e Approaches oaches to to Disinf infor ormation ation Works kshop op | Harvar ard d Univ iver ersity ity 9
Disinformation in Sub-Saharan Africa – A research agenda Exploratory three-country nonprobability online survey Focus group discussions with university students in 5+ countries 2019/10/04 04 Comparat arativ ive e Approaches oaches to to Disinf infor ormation ation Works kshop op | Harvar ard d Univ iver ersity ity 10 10
Country selection 2019/10/04 04 Comparat arativ ive e Approaches oaches to to Disinf infor ormation ation Works kshop op | Harvar ard d Univ iver ersity ity 11 11
Methods – Stimuli (I) 2019/10/04 04 Comparat arativ ive e Approaches oaches to to Disinf infor ormation ation Works kshop op | Harvar ard d Univ iver ersity ity 12 12
Methods – Stimuli (II) 2019/10/04 04 Comparat arativ ive e Approaches oaches to to Disinf infor ormation ation Works kshop op | Harvar ard d Univ iver ersity ity 13 13
RQ1 How do audiences decide which information they share through digital and social media? 2019/10/04 04 Comparat arativ ive e Approaches oaches to to Disinf infor ormation ation Works kshop op | Harvar ard d Univ iver ersity ity 14 14
‘Take all news with a pinch of salt’ Widespread use of e of cues es to decide how credible a piece of news is: Authorship, format, sources cited, quality of photos, verified vs. non verified users… ‘Knee jerk reaction’ when faced with dubious information is to do add dditional research ch: From a simple Google search to cross- referencing with “established” sources Not a single participant suggested they’d use fact -checking websites. Information sharing not see een as as a form rm of soci cial curre rrency cy, but some types of sharing practice could be. 2019/10/04 04 Comparat arativ ive e Approaches oaches to to Disinf infor ormation ation Works kshop op | Harvar ard d Univ iver ersity ity 15 15
RQ2 To what extent do different types of content and sources affect shareability? 2019/10/04 04 Comparat arativ ive e Approaches oaches to to Disinf infor ormation ation Works kshop op | Harvar ard d Univ iver ersity ity 16 16
‘It’s more harmful not to share than to share’ Very few found po polit itica ical l stori ries es shareable General dislike towards encountering political content on social media Quite a few thought hea ealth-re rela lated ed storie ies s mer erit ited ed sharin ing because They create awareness, just in case it is true… It is a way of showing people that stories are not true (meta-sharing) It helps to get a sense of people’s opinion on a topic In South Africa, Kenya & Nigeria, undergraduates would share inaccurate stories “just for fun” Quite a few share content from parody accounts, also comedians (e.g. Trevor Noah) 2019/10/04 04 Comparat arativ ive e Approaches oaches to to Disinf infor ormation ation Works kshop op | Harvar ard d Univ iver ersity ity 17 17
RQ3 What differences and similarities exist between sharing practices across countries? 2019/10/04 04 Comparat arativ ive e Approaches oaches to to Disinf infor ormation ation Works kshop op | Harvar ard d Univ iver ersity ity 18 18
'I use WhatsApp for everything’ We found very few between-country differences, but consistent within-countr country y di differ eren ences ces (undergraduate vs. postgraduate) Global international media (BBC, CNN, New York Times) are seen as rel elia iable le sour urce ces of in informa rmati tion on. Also, some legacy media in each country are respected. Zimbabwean & Nigerian participants were the most distrustful; but there’s no narrative of ‘the media cannot be trusted’. We found no evidence of “chaotic” motivations to share mis- & dis- information. 2019/10/04 04 Comparat arativ ive e Approaches oaches to to Disinf infor ormation ation Works kshop op | Harvar ard d Univ iver ersity ity 19 19
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