research-article

How Information Snowballs: Exploring the Role of Exposure in Online Rumor Propagation

Authors:

Kelley Shanahan,

Yoanna Dosouto,

Emma S. SpiroAuthors Info & Claims

CSCW '16: Proceedings of the 19th ACM Conference on Computer-Supported Cooperative Work & Social Computing

Pages 466 - 477

https://doi.org/10.1145/2818048.2819964

Published: 27 February 2016 Publication History

Abstract

In this paper we highlight three distinct approaches to studying rumor dynamics-volume, exposure, and content production. Expanding upon prior work, which has focused on rumor volume, we argue that considering the size of the exposed population is a vital component of understanding rumoring. Additionally, by combining all three approaches we discover subtle features of rumoring behavior that would have been missed by applying each approach in isolation. Using a case study of rumoring on Twitter during a hostage crisis in Sydney, Australia, we apply a mixed-methods framework to explore rumoring and its consequences through these three lenses, focusing on the added dimension of exposure in particular. Our approach demonstrates the importance of considering both rumor content and the people engaging with rumor content to arrive at a more holistic understanding of communication dynamics. These results have implications for emergency responders and official use of social media during crisis management.

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cover image ACM Conferences

CSCW '16: Proceedings of the 19th ACM Conference on Computer-Supported Cooperative Work & Social Computing

February 2016

1866 pages

ISBN:9781450335928

DOI:10.1145/2818048

General Chairs:
Darren Gergle
Northwestern University
,
Meredith Ringel Morris
Microsoft Research
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Pernille Bjørn
University of Copenhagen
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University of Minnesota

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Published: 27 February 2016

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https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0296444
Reuben MFriedland LPuzis RGrinberg NBaeza-Yates RBonchi F(2024)Leveraging Exposure Networks for Detecting Fake News SourcesProceedings of the 30th ACM SIGKDD Conference on Knowledge Discovery and Data Mining10.1145/3637528.3671539(5635-5646)Online publication date: 25-Aug-2024
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