study, one could conclude that the Greek users follow Davis’ recommendations and
they use their individual knowledge and experience as weapons against the spread of
fake news.
In a sense, the Greek users adopt a more active role and as the UGT, which is the
theoretical framework of this study, indicates the audience is active and its media use
is goal generated (Leung and Wei, 2000). The UGT
exercises the idea that the
audience use media so that they receive a specific gratification from it and this theory
discusses how users proactively search for media that will not only meet a given
need but enhance knowledge, social interaction and diversity (Papacharissi and
Mendelson, 2010). This approach was detected
in the members of the Ellinika
Hoaxes Facebook group. Based on their responses, they tend to use media, like the
Internet and social media platforms, in an active way in order to fulfill their need for
accurate facts and data. Moreover, the use the same media to adopt a more active role
and counter the spread of fake news, share their findings (facts which suggest that a
story is fake or misleading) and enrich diversity in information and social interaction.
For instance, they search on the Internet for facts to verify whether a story is fake or
not. Instead of been passive users who read messages online, they chose to play a
more active role, be skeptical and make their own research using various media.
Moreover, according to UGT approach, people have enough self-awareness of their
media use, interests, and motive to be able to provide researchers with an accurate
picture of that use (Papacharissi and Mendelson, 2010).
This self-awareness is
obvious in the members of the Greek users, who know their media use and the fact
that they can extract useful insights and acquire accurate data to verify messages and
sources by using various media.
The Greek users tend to engage in a well-organized authentication process, which
consists of many steps. In the model of authentication process followed by the
members of the
Ellinika Hoaxes, the individual relies
not only on sources and
message cues but also on their own tacit sense of authenticity. For instance, the
Greek users assess potential fake news based on their own experience, knowledge,
and intuition. As they have pointed out, they tend to conduct individual research to
clarify the credibility of a message or source. This process is crucial according to the
responses of the Greek users. Therefore, the acts of authentication can be categorized
36
into two main patterns: interactions with fake news and personal experiences. During
the act of the authentication process, the Greek users combined these two patterns to
better spot a fake story and counter its spread on social media.
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