Who Shared It?

Title: 'Who Shared It?': How Americans Decide What News to Trust on Social Media

Publication Date: March 20, 2017

Authors: American Press Institute: Tom Rosenstiel, Jeff Sonderman, Kevin Loker / UChicago: Jennifer Benz, David Sterrett, Dan Malato, Trevor Tompson, Liz Kantor / AP: Emily Swanson

Links: Paper / Research Summary / Nieman article

Research finds that readers' trust in content depends more on whether they trust the sharer of the link than how they feel about the organization that produced the article.

Summary:

• created a simulated Facebook post about health news. Each subject saw the link, but as if it were shared by one of eight public figures (Oprah, Dr. Oz, Surgeon General), whom they had already said they trusted/didn't trust.
• 51% of people said the article was well-reported when it was shared by a public figure they trust, vs 34% if shared by someone they don't trust. 31% of trusters said that it contained multiple points of view, vs 22% of non-trusters. They are also more likely to engage with and pass on the article if they saw it from someone they trust.
• Researchers also tried changing the supposed news source of the link from a reputable to non-reputable source. This change had less of an effect on subjects' assessment of the news than who the sharer was.
• If a subject didn't trust a source (ie they saw the source as the AP and previously said they didn't trust the AP), they had doubts about the content, but if they didn't know the source, their assessments were similar to when they trusted the source
• Only 2/10 people could recall the news reporting source accurately