Group Affiliations of Political Rumor Believers
As social media has increased in popularity in recent years, so has its role increased in disseminating information. While correct facts are certainly communicated across social networks in sites such as Facebook and Twitter, false rumors also abound. Such rumors (e.g. “Barack Obama’s birth records were sealed” [Shin et al.]) may be politically charged and expressed often during election season.
In the linked article “Political rumoring on Twitter during the 2012 US presidential election: Rumor diffusion and correction”, Shin et al. discuss how political rumor “believers” typically segregate into distinct groups. For instance, anti-Obama and anti-Romney rumor believers have much stronger connections within themselves than with each other (Figure 1). Though this finding is rather predictable, what is interesting is that “rumor debunkers” have a far less structured network, with many more “communities” identified by the researchers’ algorithm. It appears that social media users who propagate unfounded political rumors tend to be divided in very partisan manner, while those who debunk such rumors do not have such a degree of partisanship in their social media connections.
Shin et al.’s research suggest that rumor believers in the US are organized into a network consisted of two highly and positively connected groups, with much weaker connections between them. This network structure likely serves only to intensity and further divide the people’s beliefs. While it is predictable that social media users will only continue to prune connections to opposing views, such connections may help to destabilize the network, which is reminiscent of the large balanced network discusses in lecture. Perhaps encouraging connections between the partisan groups will decrease the extremism of each group’s views. The research also shows that rumor debunkers do not structure themselves in echo chambers to the degree of the believers. Whether this is a cause, effect, or both (or neither) of those individuals’ beliefs remains to be seen.
Article:
Shin, J., Jian, L., Driscoll, K., & Bar, F. (2016). Political rumoring on Twitter during the 2012 US presidential election: Rumor diffusion and correction. new media & society, 1461444816634054. Retrieved from http://nms.sagepub.com/content/early/2016/03/04/1461444816634054.abstract.