[Paper Review] Polarization, Partisanship and Junk News Consumption over Social Media in the US

Vidya Narayanan, Vlad Barash+4 more|arXiv (Cornell University)|Mar 4, 2018

Misinformation and Its Impacts3 references63 citations

TL;DR

The paper analyzes the distribution of junk news across Twitter and Facebook in the three months before Trump's State of the Union, finding that Trump-supporting Twitter networks and extreme hard-right Facebook pages circulate the widest ranges of junk sources, with Twitter audiences generally sharing a broader range than Facebook pages.

ABSTRACT

What kinds of social media users read junk news? We examine the distribution of the most significant sources of junk news in the three months before President Donald Trump first State of the Union Address. Drawing on a list of sources that consistently publish political news and information that is extremist, sensationalist, conspiratorial, masked commentary, fake news and other forms of junk news, we find that the distribution of such content is unevenly spread across the ideological spectrum. We demonstrate that (1) on Twitter, a network of Trump supporters shares the widest range of known junk news sources and circulates more junk news than all the other groups put together; (2) on Facebook, extreme hard right pages, distinct from Republican pages, share the widest range of known junk news sources and circulate more junk news than all the other audiences put together; (3) on average, the audiences for junk news on Twitter share a wider range of known junk news sources than audiences on Facebook public pages.

Motivation & Objective

• Investigate how junk news sources are distributed across social media platforms in the US.
• Examine ideological differences in junk news consumption on Twitter and Facebook.
• Assess whether certain political actor groups share more junk news than others.
• Identify whether Twitter and Facebook audiences differ in the breadth of junk news sources circulated.

Proposed method

• Use a predefined list of junk news sources that are political, extremist, sensationalist, conspiratorial, or fake news.
• Analyze the distribution of these sources across Twitter and Facebook audiences in the three months before the State of the Union Address.
• Compare junk news sharing across groups such as Trump supporters, hard-right pages, and Republican pages.
• Quantify the range of known junk news sources shared by different audiences on each platform.

Experimental results

Research questions

• RQ1 Which social media groups or actor networks on Twitter and Facebook circulate the widest range of junk news sources?
• RQ2 Do Twitter and Facebook audiences differ in the breadth of junk news sources they share?
• RQ3 How do Trump-supporter networks on Twitter compare to extreme hard-right Facebook pages in terms of junk news dissemination?
• RQ4 Are Facebook Republican pages distinct from extreme hard-right pages in sharing junk news?],
• RQ5 key_findings':['On Twitter, a network of Trump supporters shares the widest range of known junk news sources and circulates more junk news than all other groups combined.
• RQ6 On Facebook, extreme hard-right pages, distinct from Republican pages, share the widest range of known junk news sources and circulate more junk news than all other audiences combined.
• RQ7 On average, audiences for junk news on Twitter share a wider range of known junk news sources than audiences on Facebook public pages.