Examining fake news comments on Facebook: an application of situational theory of problem solving in content analysis

Abstract

Fake news is always diffused faster than true news, particularly on social media such as Facebook where everyone can freely share and comment on posts. This study aimed to identify fake news commenters’ belief and emotion towards fake news on Facebook, analyze their situational perceptions and communicative action towards fake news based on Situational Theory of Problem Solving (STOPS), and examine the association between the variables. A content analysis was conducted on 2189 comments derived from 45 fake news on Facebook between 2017 to 2019, Chi-Square Test was subsequently performed to analyze the association between the variables. The findings showed that there is an association between belief and emotion towards fake news - fake news non-believers tend to show negative emotion when they read fake news and commenters with negative emotion are more likely to claim that the news is fake compared to their counterpart. However, negative emotion is not significantly associated with proving the news is fake. Among the situational perceptions of STOPS that were significantly associated with communicative action, constraint recognition appeared to have the largest effect. The findings of this study provided recommendation to the collective efforts of multistakeholders in combating fake news.

Keywords:

• Fake news
• content analysis
• Facebook comments
• communicative action
• Situational Theory of Problem Solving (STOPS)

Acknowledgment

The authors would like to thank Pong Kok Shiong and Nur Zahrawaani Binti Jasmin for their help in the coding of data, Dr. Gan Su Wan and Dr. T’ng Soo Ting for their advice in the data analysis, and Audrey Anak John for her assistance in the translation of comments.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Ying Shin Chin

Ying Shin Chin is a PhD candidate at the Department of Media and Communication Studies, Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences, University of Malaya, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. He is also a lecturer at the Department of Public Relations, Faculty of Arts and Social Science, Universiti Tunku Abdul Rahman, Kampar, Malaysia. His research interests are fake news, new media literacy, and public relations.

Hasmah Zanuddin

Hasmah Zanuddin is an Associate Professor at the Department of Media and Communication Studies, Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences, University of Malaya, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. Her expertise includes public relations, media and communication policy and management, research method, content studies, and audience research.