Slides for Processing Layered News Sources on Facebook: Effects on Credibility and Learning, presented at the 2017 conference of the International Communication Association

1. Processing Layered News
Sources on Facebook: Effects on
Credibility and Learning
ANNE OELDORF-HIRSCH
CHRISTINA DEVOSS
DEPARTMENT OF COMMUNICATION
UNIVERSITY OF CONNECTICUT
ANNE OELDORF-HIRSCH | FACEBOOK NEWS #ICA17 @ANNEOHIRSCH 1

2. Use of Facebook for News
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3. Concerns with Social Media News Use
CREDIBILITY
Social media users judge
news credibility by
several cues1,2,3,4
LEARNING
Social media use for news not
linked to knowledge or linked
to knowledge negatively5,6,7
ANNE OELDORF-HIRSCH | FACEBOOK NEWS #ICA17 @ANNEOHIRSCH 3
1Morris, Counts, Roseway, Hoff, & Schwarz, 2012; 2Winter, Brückner, & Krämer, 2015; 3Oeldorf-Hirsch, Schmierbach, Appelman, & Boyle, 2016;
4Schmierbach, Oeldorf-Hirsch, Boyle, & Appelman, 2016; 5Gil de Zúñiga, Weeks, & Ardèvol-Abreu, 2017; 6Bode, 2016; 7Oeldorf-Hirsch, 2015

4. Multi-Layered News Sources
Stories shared on Facebook have two news sources:
Friend source; media source
ANNE OELDORF-HIRSCH | FACEBOOK NEWS #ICA17 @ANNEOHIRSCH 4
How do users
judge credibility
of combined
sources?
Especially when
source cues
conflict?

5. Processing Facebook Source Cues
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Friend Source Media Source
H1: Credibility
perceptions
higher for a news
story shared on
Facebook from a
trusted media
source
H2: Credibility
perceptions
higher for a news
story shared on
Facebook by a
close friend
H3: Credibility perceptions highest when source cues align +; lowest when they align -
RQ1: What are effects on credibility perceptions when source cues conflict?
H4: Involvement
moderates
effect of cues on
credibility

6. Learning from Facebook Source Cues
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H6: Greater
elaboration about
the news content will
lead to greater
learning from news
content
H5: Conflicting
source cues will
lead to greater
elaboration about
news content

7. Experiment
2 (high/low involvement) x 2 (close/distant friend) x 2 (trusted/distrusted media)
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Rank most
trusted & least
trusted news
sources
Identify closest
and least close
Facebook friends
High involvement Low involvement
(Qualtrics piped text)

8. Participants
N = 233
Recruited from a general education communication course
Facebook friends: M = 638, SD = 465.16, range = 1-3,733
Age 18-24, M = 19, SD = 1.23
59% female
64% White/Caucasian
22% Asian/Asian American
4% Black/African-American
4% Hispanic/Latino/a
4% mixed race/ethnicity
ANNE OELDORF-HIRSCH | FACEBOOK NEWS #ICA17 @ANNEOHIRSCH 10

9. Source Effects on Credibility
H1: Trusted media source  Credibility
H2: Close friend  Credibility
H3: Aligned source cues
◦ Distant friend/distrusted media: M = 3.28, SD = .57
◦ Close friend/trusted media: M = 3.50, SD = .58
RQ1: Conflicting source cues
◦ Trusted media source/distant friend: M = 3.43, SD = .55
◦ Distrusted media source/close friend: M = 3.30, SD = .65
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10. Involvement’s Effect on Credibility (H4)
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3.4
3.33.3
3.59
3
3.2
3.4
3.6
3.8
4
LOW TRUST MEDIA HIGH TRUST MEDIA
CREDIBILITY
LOW INVOLVEMENT STORY
Distant friend Close friend
3.17
3.57
3.31
3.41
3
3.2
3.4
3.6
3.8
4
LOW TRUST MEDIA HIGH TRUST MEDIA
CREDIBILITY
HIGH INVOLVEMENT STORY
Distant friend Close friend

11. Source Effects on Learning
H5: Conflicting cues  Elaboration
H6: Elaboration  Learning
Higher involvement story  Greater elaboration
Greater Facebook news engagement  Greater elaboration
Lower involvement story  Higher knowledge score
Greater Facebook news engagement  Lower knowledge score
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12. So What?
Facebook users…
Notice and judge different sources
• 55% identified media source
• 19% identified friend source
• 2% identified both sources
• 24% Did not correctly identify a source
Elaborate more on news they are already more involved in
But may learn more from news they are less involved in
May hinder their own learning from the news
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13. Get in Touch
anneo@uconn.edu
@anneohirsch
bit.ly/anneouconn
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