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Implications of source, content, and style cues in curbing health misinformation and fake news

Louisa Ha (School of Media and Communication, Bowling Green State University, Bowling Green, Ohio, USA)
Debipreeta Rahut (School of Media and Communication, Bowling Green State University, Bowling Green, Ohio, USA)
Michael Ofori (School of Media and Communication, Bowling Green State University, Bowling Green, Ohio, USA)
Shudipta Sharma (School of Media and Communication, Bowling Green State University, Bowling Green, Ohio, USA)
Michael Harmon (Dial Center for Written and Oral Communication, University of Florida, Gainesville, Florida, USA)
Amonia Tolofari (School of Media and Communication, Bowling Green State University, Bowling Green, Ohio, USA)
Bernadette Bowen (School of Media and Communication, Bowling Green State University, Bowling Green, Ohio, USA)
Yanqin Lu (School of Media and Communication, Bowling Green State University, Bowling Green, Ohio, USA)
Amir Khan (School of Media and Communication, Bowling Green State University, Bowling Green, Ohio, USA)

Internet Research

ISSN: 1066-2243

Article publication date: 16 May 2023

Issue publication date: 20 November 2023

328

Abstract

Purpose

To provide human judgment input for computer algorithm development, this study examines the relative importance of source, content, and style cues in predicting the truthfulness ratings of two common types of online health information: news stories and institutional news releases.

Design/methodology/approach

This study employed a multi-method approach using (1) a manual content analysis of 400 randomly selected online health news stories and news releases from HealthNewsReview.org and (2) an online experiment comparing truthfulness ratings between news stories and news releases.

Findings

Using content analysis, the authors found significant differences in the importance of source, content, and style cues in predicting truthfulness ratings of news stories and news releases: source and style cues predicted truthfulness ratings better than content cues. In the experiment, source credibility was the most important predictor of truthfulness ratings, controlling for individual differences. Experts have higher ratings for news media stories than news releases and lay people have no differences in rating the two news formats.

Practical implications

It is important for health educators to curb consumer trust in misinformation and increase health information literacy. Rather than solely reporting scientific evidence, educators should focus on addressing cues people use to judge the truthfulness of health information.

Originality/value

This is the first study that directly compares human judgments of health news stories and news releases. Using both the breadth of content analysis and experimental causality testing, the authors evaluate the relative importance of source, content, and style cues in predicting truthfulness ratings.

Keywords

Acknowledgements

An earlier version of this paper was presented to the Health Communication Division of the 2022 National Communication Association Annual Conference.

Citation

Ha, L., Rahut, D., Ofori, M., Sharma, S., Harmon, M., Tolofari, A., Bowen, B., Lu, Y. and Khan, A. (2023), "Implications of source, content, and style cues in curbing health misinformation and fake news", Internet Research, Vol. 33 No. 5, pp. 1949-1970. https://doi.org/10.1108/INTR-07-2022-0556

Publisher

:

Emerald Publishing Limited

Copyright © 2023, Emerald Publishing Limited

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