Calling Out Fake News on Social Media: A Comparison of Literature in Librarianship and Journalism

This study compared 475 scholarly journal articles in librarianship and journalism on social media published between 2006 and early 2017. Though articles from these two information professions are mostly positive on social media, various journalism articles pointed out the information credibility issue on social media while no librarianship article did that. With fake news being a major issue in the information business since the 2016?US election, librarians should do more in calling out fake news on social media in their publications as well as in information literacy classrooms.     

Information,Community, and Action: How Nonprofit Organizations Use Social Media*

The rapid diffusion of “microblogging” services such as Twitter is ushering in a new era of possibilities for organizations to communicate with and engage their core stakeholders and the general public. To enhance understanding of the communicative functions microblogging serves for organizations, this study examines the Twitter utilization practices of the 100 largest nonprofit organizations in the United States. The analysis reveals there are three key functions of microblogging updates—“information,”“community,” and “action.” Though the informational use of microblogging is extensive, nonprofit organizations are better at using Twitter to strategically engage their stakeholders via dialogic and community‐building practices than they have been with traditional websites. The adoption of social media appears to have engendered new paradigms of public engagement.     

Commenting in the Online Arab Public Sphere: Debating the Swiss Minaret Ban and the “Ground Zero Mosque” Online

This article focuses on the emerging online Arab public sphere that the web has enabled. It explores how the “local” interacts with the “global,” critically examining their implications on global politics. Specifically looking at online readers' comments about the Swiss minaret ban the so‐called “Ground Zero Mosque,” how does the Arab online public sphere respond to and frame these issues? What implications do these reader frames portend locally and globally? The study analyzes online comments and responses that readers of Al Arabiya.net and Al Jazeera.net posted on related news articles. The article concludes that the new online public sphere does make it possible for Arab citizens to circumvent and challenge traditional authoritarian controls.     

Effects of the News‐Finds‐Me Perception in Communication: Social Media Use Implications for News Seeking and Learning About Politics

With social media at the forefront of today's media context, citizens may perceive they don't need to actively seek news because they will be exposed to news and remain well‐informed through their peers and social networks. We label this the “news‐finds‐me perception,” and test its implications for news seeking and political knowledge: “news‐finds‐me effects.” U.S. panel‐survey data show that individuals who perceive news will find them are less likely to use traditional news sources and are less knowledgeable about politics over time. Although the news‐finds‐me perception is positively associated with news exposure on social media, this behavior doesn't facilitate political learning. These results suggest news continues to enhance political knowledge best when actively sought.     

The ‘Privacy Paradox’ in the Social Web: The Impact of Privacy Concerns,Individual Characteristics,and the Perceived Social Relevance on Different Forms of Self‐Disclosure

Given the diffusion of the Social Web and increased disclosure of personal information online, the ‘privacy paradox’ suggests that while Internet users are concerned about privacy, their behaviors do not mirror those concerns. This study investigates the potential influence of privacy concerns, psychological traits, attitudes to the Social Web and age on self‐disclosure. Using an online survey of a representative sample of German Internet users (n = 2, 739), the variety and quality of self‐disclosure as well as access were measured. The findings indicate that privacy concerns hardly impact self‐disclosure, but different variables moderate this relation. Perceived social relevance and the number of applications used proved important. Users' general willingness to disclose is most important when providing sensitive information.     

The Double‐Edged Sword: The Effects of Journalists' Social Media Activities on Audience Perceptions of Journalists and Their News Products

As social media become popular news platforms, journalists and news organizations have been keen to capitalize on their potential to build and maintain audiences. However, little is known about the extent to which these efforts may have adverse implications. Based on normative theories, the present study investigates the influence of journalists' social media activities (specifically, self‐disclosure and interaction with other users) on audience perceptions of journalists. An experiment (N = 267) revealed that: Although both journalists' self‐disclosure and interaction positively influenced audience perceptions of the journalists in the personal dimension, interaction negatively influenced audience perceptions in the professional dimension; and the perceptions transferred to perceptions of news products, thereby mediating the relationship between journalists' social media activities and audience news perceptions.     

Political Expression and Action on Social Media: Exploring the Relationship Between Lower‐ and Higher‐Threshold Political Activities Among Twitter Users in Italy

Scholars and commentators have debated whether lower‐threshold forms of political engagement on social media should be treated as being conducive to higher‐threshold modes of political participation or a diversion from them. Drawing on an original survey of a representative sample of Italians who discussed the 2013 election on Twitter, we demonstrate that the more respondents acquire political information via social media and express themselves politically on these platforms, the more they are likely to contact politicians via e‐mail, campaign for parties and candidates using social media, and attend offline events to which they were invited online. These results suggest that lower‐threshold forms of political engagement on social media do not distract from higher‐threshold activities, but are strongly associated with them.