Investigating Rumor Propagation with TwitterTrails

Social media have become part of modern news reporting, used by journalists to spread information and find sources, or as a news source by individuals. The quest for prominence and recognition on social media sites like Twitter can sometimes eclipse accuracy and lead to the spread of false information. As a way to study and react to this trend, we introduce {\sc TwitterTrails}, an interactive, web-based tool ({\tt twittertrails.com}) that allows users to investigate the origin and propagation characteristics of a rumor and its refutation, if any, on Twitter. Visualizations of burst activity, propagation timeline, retweet and co-retweeted networks help its users trace the spread of a story. Within minutes {\sc TwitterTrails} will collect relevant tweets and automatically answer several important questions regarding a rumor: its originator, burst characteristics, propagators and main actors according to the audience. In addition, it will compute and report the rumor's level of visibility and, as an example of the power of crowdsourcing, the audience's skepticism towards it which correlates with the rumor's credibility. We envision {\sc TwitterTrails} as valuable tool for individual use, but we especially for amateur and professional journalists investigating recent and breaking stories. Further, its expanding collection of investigated rumors can be used to answer questions regarding the amount and success of misinformation on Twitter.Comment: 10 pages, 8 figures, under revie

Classroom Activity for Critical Analysis of News Propagation Online

We present an educational activity for college students to think critically about the truthfulness of news propagated in social media. This activity utilizes TwitterTrails, a visual tool to analyze Twitter claims, events, and memes. This tool provides views such as a propagation graph of a story’s bursting activity, and the co-ReTweeted network of the more prominent members of the audience. Using a response and reflection form, students are guided through these different facets of a story. The classroom activity was iteratively designed over the course of three semesters. Here, we present the learning outcomes from our final semester’s evaluation with 43 students. Our findings demonstrate that the activity provided students with both the conceptual tools and motivation to investigate the reliability of stories in social media. Our contribution also includes access to the tool and materials to conduct this activity. We hope that other educators will further improve and run this activity with their own students

DEMO: Using TwitterTrails.com to Investigate Rumor Propagation

Social media have become part of modern news reporting, used by journalists to spread information and find sources, or as a news source by individuals. The quest for prominence and recognition on social media sites like Twitter can sometimes eclipse accuracy and lead to the spread of false information. As a way to study and react to this trend, we demo TWITTERTRAILS, an interactive, webbased tool (twittertrails.com) that allows users to investigate the origin and propagation characteristics of a rumor and its refutation, if any, on Twitter. Visualizations of burst activity, propagation timeline, retweet and co-retweeted networks help its users trace the spread of a story. Within minutes TWITTERTRAILS will collect relevant tweets and automatically answer several important questions regarding a rumor: its originator, burst characteristics, propagators and main actors according to the audience. In addition, it will compute and report the rumor’s level of visibility and, as an example of the power of crowdsourcing, the audience’s skepticism towards it which correlates with the rumor’s credibility. We envision TWITTERTRAILS as valuable tool for individual use, and especially for amateur and professional journalists investigating recent and breaking stories

Investigating the Macedonia naming dispute in the Twitter era: implications for the Greek identity crisis

The Macedonia naming dispute has been an important issue in Greek affairs. It constitutes both an irresolvable, decades-old international problem and a significant, yet undertheorised, analytical topic. In this context, our aim is to critically explore, highlight and discuss the deep-seated and pervasive patterns, representations, attitudes, beliefs, ideas and norms within the Greek social imaginary, as these emerged on Twitter in real-time, during the mass “Macedonia rally” on February 4, 2018. More specifically, drawing on the dialectical interaction between Twitter posts, sociopolitical behaviours and interpretative analytic frames linked to interdisciplinary theoretical discourses, we attempt to understand and interrogate the intellectual structures, value system and operational categories of a large number of Greek groups on the ‘Twittersphere’. Based on the assumption that, in the last instance, the rigid refusal of the majority of the Greek people to accept a ‘composite name’ solution is connected with the tacit social imaginary of the Greek society, the present paper brings to the fore a complex identity problem. This problem relationally refers to the internal workings of the individuals, the psyche and the unconscious, but also to hidden and unreflected symbolic backgrounds, macro-social processes, and cultural legacies. Our following Twitter network analysis, focused on selected hashtags regarding the ‘Macedonia rally’, point out the character of social dynamics and ascertain the findings of the interpretative research strand

Чутки як соціокомунікаційний феномен

У статті комплексно розглянуто особливості феномену чуток, обставини, за яких вони виникають, та суспільну роль, яку вони виконують. Наведено стислий аналіз ключових етапів вивчення феномену чуток у різні історичні періоди. Відповідно до цього виокремлено головні характеристики та спроби систематизації чуток на різних етапах розвитку наукової думки. У результаті здійсненого аналізу зроблено висновок, що чутки є особливим жанром комунікації зі специфічними характеристиками. Поява, розповсюдження та потенційні наслідки чуток аналізуються з точки зору масових комунікацій з урахуванням напрацювань суміжних наук. Використано доробок науковців у царині психології, соціальної психології, соціології, історії, політичних технологій, реклами. Окрему увагу приділено новітній проблематиці, пов’язаній з особливостями й наслідками поширення чуток у соціальних мережах. Проаналізовано зміни каналів поширення чуток з розвитком засобів масової комунікації, а також простежено зв’язок чуток з фейковими новинами. Зроблено висновок, що у зв’язку з блискавичністю поширення чуток у соцмережах ця інформація має високий потенціал шкідливого впливу. Під час масових заворушень чи суспільних криз це може стати серйозною загрозою для державної безпеки та життя людей. Зроблено огляд актуальних досліджень, пов’язаних з намаганням виявити закономірності поширення чуток у соціальних мережах, спробами зрозуміти його динаміку й можливі засоби протидії. Хоча дослідники активно шукають шляхи виявлення та стримування шкідливих чуток, зокрема з використанням машинного навчання та штучного інтелекту, досі не запропоновано системного рішення цієї проблеми. Виходячи з цього, окреслено перспективи подальших наукових студій у цьому напрямі.The article proposes to consider comprehensively the features of the rumors phenomenon, the circumstances under which they arise, and the social role they play. A brief analysis of the key stages of studying the phenomenon of rumors in different historical periods is given. Accordingly, the main characteristics and attempts to systematize rumors at different stages of scientific thought development highlighted. As a result of the analysis, it is concluded that rumors are a special genre of communication with specific characteristics. The appearance, spread and potential consequences of rumors are analyzed in terms of mass communications, taking into account the findings of related sciences. The works of scientists in the field of psychology, social psychology, sociology, history, political technology, advertising are used. This review paid particular attention to the latest issues related to the features and consequences of the spread of rumors on social networks. The paper analyses the changes in rumors’ distribution channels with the development of mass media and traces the connection of rumors with fake news. The paper concludes that due to the lightning spread of rumors on social networks, this information has a high potential for harmful effects. During riots or social crises, this can be a serious threat to national security and people’s lives. An overview of current research related to the attempt to identify patterns of rumors in social networks, attempts to understand its dynamics and possible ways to counteract. Although researchers are actively looking for ways to detect and deter harmful rumors, using machine learning and artificial intelligence, no on put forward systemic solution for this issue. Based on this, the paper outlined the prospect of further study in this direction

Supporting the use of user generated content in journalistic practice

Social media and user-generated content (UGC) are increasingly important features of journalistic work in a number of different ways. However, their use presents major challenges, not least because information posted on social media is not always reliable and therefore its veracity needs to be checked before it can be considered as fit for use in the reporting of news. We report on the results of a series of in-depth ethnographic studies of journalist work practices undertaken as part of the requirements gathering for a prototype of a social media verification ‘dashboard’ and its subsequent evaluation. We conclude with some reflections upon the broader implications of our findings for the design of tools to support journalistic work

The Web of False Information: Rumors, Fake News, Hoaxes, Clickbait, and Various Other Shenanigans

A new era of Information Warfare has arrived. Various actors, including state-sponsored ones, are weaponizing information on Online Social Networks to run false information campaigns with targeted manipulation of public opinion on specific topics. These false information campaigns can have dire consequences to the public: mutating their opinions and actions, especially with respect to critical world events like major elections. Evidently, the problem of false information on the Web is a crucial one, and needs increased public awareness, as well as immediate attention from law enforcement agencies, public institutions, and in particular, the research community. In this paper, we make a step in this direction by providing a typology of the Web's false information ecosystem, comprising various types of false information, actors, and their motives. We report a comprehensive overview of existing research on the false information ecosystem by identifying several lines of work: 1) how the public perceives false information; 2) understanding the propagation of false information; 3) detecting and containing false information on the Web; and 4) false information on the political stage. In this work, we pay particular attention to political false information as: 1) it can have dire consequences to the community (e.g., when election results are mutated) and 2) previous work show that this type of false information propagates faster and further when compared to other types of false information. Finally, for each of these lines of work, we report several future research directions that can help us better understand and mitigate the emerging problem of false information dissemination on the Web

Early and often: Can real-time intervention by trusted authorities help stop a tsunami of disinformation?

A tsunami of disinformation is washing over the world, with social media helping it to spread quickly and widely. The purveyors of disinformation use it to press their agenda by adding untruths where previously there were none, fabricating stories, reporting them out of context, or doctoring images to promote their message. In the past, disinformation has been a prelude to and run concurrently with other attacks, including cyber and conventional warfare, and when officials reacted to disinformation, they successfully slowed its flow but did not entirely stop it, and may not have “won” cyber or conventional battles. Researchers say even multiple corrections don’t fully stop disinformation, and sowing skepticism by forewarning of a probable disinformation campaign is the most successful way of staunching the flow. Tools have been developed to help detect disinformation rapidly but officials often don’t have a plan to track, correct or refute it