How Types of Facebook Users Approach News Verification in the Mobile Media Age: Insights from the Dual-Information-Processing Model

ABSTRACT

Because social media have become a primary means by which fake news is received and disseminated, verifying the accuracy of such news has become an increasingly critical practice for individual users. Drawing on the dual-information-processing model, this study uses two-wave panel survey data collected in Taiwan to investigate users’ verification processes. Results reveal three user-types based on motivation for Facebook use—omnivores, entertainment-oriented mixers, and leisure-convenience seekers—and show that omnivores who are high in all motivations are more likely to engage in elaborative processing and subsequent verification of news than leisure-convenience seekers who use Facebook mainly for leisure and convenience purposes. Further, the indirect effects are weaker for entertainment-oriented mixers with higher levels of mobile Facebook use, compared to leisure-convenience seekers.

Declaration of conflicting interests

The author(s) declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article

Notes

¹ Because SSI did not track the number of invitations sent to potential respondents for a specific survey, the response rate of W1 was not available.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the Ministry of Science and Technology of the Republic of China under Grant [MOST 107-2410-H-009-013 and MOST 108-2410-H-009 −045 -SS3].

Notes on contributors

Rebecca Ping Yu

Rebecca Ping Yu (Ph.D., University of Michigan) is an assistant professor in the Department of Communication & Technology at National Chiao Tung University. Her research interests include issues of information and communication technology (ICT) access and political and social implications of ICT use.