Information search engagement and 'fake news'.

Marcella, Rita; Baxter, Graeme

Abstract

This conference paper presented the emerging results of research which explored the relationship between fake news and Scottish citizens' information behaviour. The research consisted of two key elements: an online survey (538 responses) that gathered citizens' opinions on the reliability of five images containing various 'facts and figures' that had been posted on social media by Scotland's five main political parties; and 23 extended interviews with citizens that explored their response to information explicitly presented as 'the facts' on the websites of the five main Scottish parties. This paper also presented the authors' evolving taxonomy of information seeker engagement in a political context.

Citation

MARCELLA, R. and BAXTER, G. 2017. Information search engagement and 'fake news'. Presented at a workshop of the University of Westminster's Centre for the Study of Democracy: democracy in a post-truth age, 8 June 2017, London, UK.

• Presentation Conference Type: Lecture
• Conference Name: Democracy in a post-truth age workshop
• Conference Location: London, UK
• Start Date: Jun 8, 2017
• Deposit Date: Dec 8, 2017
• Publicly Available Date: Dec 8, 2017
• Keywords: Citizenship information; Parliamentary information; Election campaigns; Social media; Surveys
• Public URL: http://hdl.handle.net/10059/2623