Platform Effects on Alternative Influencer Content: Understanding How Audiences and Channels Shape Misinformation Online
People are increasingly exposed to science and political information from social media. One consequence is that these sites play host to “alternative influencers,” who spread misinformation. However, content posted by alternative influencers on different social media platforms is unlikely to be homo...
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Frontiers Media S.A.
2021-05-01
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Online Access: | https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fpos.2021.642394/full |
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doaj-c081591a7160407cbf62e0ab102d779c2021-05-31T07:15:30ZengFrontiers Media S.A.Frontiers in Political Science2673-31452021-05-01310.3389/fpos.2021.642394642394Platform Effects on Alternative Influencer Content: Understanding How Audiences and Channels Shape Misinformation OnlineDan Hiaeshutter-Rice0Sedona Chinn1Kaiping Chen2Department of Advertising and Public Relations, Michigan State University, East Lansing, MI, United StatesDepartment of Life Sciences Communication, University of Wisconsin-Madison, Madison, WI, United StatesDepartment of Life Sciences Communication, University of Wisconsin-Madison, Madison, WI, United StatesPeople are increasingly exposed to science and political information from social media. One consequence is that these sites play host to “alternative influencers,” who spread misinformation. However, content posted by alternative influencers on different social media platforms is unlikely to be homogenous. Our study uses computational methods to investigate how dimensions we refer to as audience and channel of social media platforms influence emotion and topics in content posted by “alternative influencers” on different platforms. Using COVID-19 as an example, we find that alternative influencers’ content contained more anger and fear words on Facebook and Twitter compared to YouTube. We also found that these actors discussed substantively different topics in their COVID-19 content on YouTube compared to Twitter and Facebook. With these findings, we discuss how the audience and channel of different social media platforms affect alternative influencers’ ability to spread misinformation online.https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fpos.2021.642394/fullmisinformationsocial mediaalternative influencersplatformscomputational social science |
collection |
DOAJ |
language |
English |
format |
Article |
sources |
DOAJ |
author |
Dan Hiaeshutter-Rice Sedona Chinn Kaiping Chen |
spellingShingle |
Dan Hiaeshutter-Rice Sedona Chinn Kaiping Chen Platform Effects on Alternative Influencer Content: Understanding How Audiences and Channels Shape Misinformation Online Frontiers in Political Science misinformation social media alternative influencers platforms computational social science |
author_facet |
Dan Hiaeshutter-Rice Sedona Chinn Kaiping Chen |
author_sort |
Dan Hiaeshutter-Rice |
title |
Platform Effects on Alternative Influencer Content: Understanding How Audiences and Channels Shape Misinformation Online |
title_short |
Platform Effects on Alternative Influencer Content: Understanding How Audiences and Channels Shape Misinformation Online |
title_full |
Platform Effects on Alternative Influencer Content: Understanding How Audiences and Channels Shape Misinformation Online |
title_fullStr |
Platform Effects on Alternative Influencer Content: Understanding How Audiences and Channels Shape Misinformation Online |
title_full_unstemmed |
Platform Effects on Alternative Influencer Content: Understanding How Audiences and Channels Shape Misinformation Online |
title_sort |
platform effects on alternative influencer content: understanding how audiences and channels shape misinformation online |
publisher |
Frontiers Media S.A. |
series |
Frontiers in Political Science |
issn |
2673-3145 |
publishDate |
2021-05-01 |
description |
People are increasingly exposed to science and political information from social media. One consequence is that these sites play host to “alternative influencers,” who spread misinformation. However, content posted by alternative influencers on different social media platforms is unlikely to be homogenous. Our study uses computational methods to investigate how dimensions we refer to as audience and channel of social media platforms influence emotion and topics in content posted by “alternative influencers” on different platforms. Using COVID-19 as an example, we find that alternative influencers’ content contained more anger and fear words on Facebook and Twitter compared to YouTube. We also found that these actors discussed substantively different topics in their COVID-19 content on YouTube compared to Twitter and Facebook. With these findings, we discuss how the audience and channel of different social media platforms affect alternative influencers’ ability to spread misinformation online. |
topic |
misinformation social media alternative influencers platforms computational social science |
url |
https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fpos.2021.642394/full |
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