Don’t you know it’s risky and influential? Antecedents and consequences of perceived fake news risks and influences

ABSTRACT

The risk of fake news has become a salient topic in recent public discourses across different societies. Like many other perceptions of social reality, people’s perceived risks and influences of fake news are constrained by individual factors such as education and political involvement; citizens’ perceptions of fake news could in turn shape how they combat and cope with fake news. Consistent with this idea, results from a representative survey in Taiwan show that education and political interest predict higher perceived risks and influences of fake news. Accordingly, those who perceive more fake news risks and influences prefer more comprehensive measures to combat it. Communicating the risks and influences of fake news to those less educated and the politically inattentive is a viable way to boost citizens’ support for more comprehensive measures to combat fake news.

KEYWORDS:

• Fake news
• Risk perception
• Presumed effects
• Combating measures
• Knowledge gap

Acknowledgments

Data analyzed in this article paper were collected by the research project of the Taiwan Communication Survey (TCS), which is supported by the Ministry of Science and Technology of R.O.C. The author(s) appreciate the assistance in providing data by the institute aforementioned. The views expressed herein are the authors’ own.

Disclosure statement

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

Additional information

Funding

The author(s) received no financial support for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.