Examining the Impact of Provenance-Enabled Media on Trust and Accuracy Perceptions

In recent years, industry leaders and researchers have proposed to use technical provenance standards to address visual misinformation spread through digitally altered media. By adding immutable and secure provenance information such as authorship and edit date to media metadata, social media users could potentially better assess the validity of the media they encounter. However, it is unclear how end users would respond to provenance information, or how to best design provenance indicators to be understandable to laypeople. We conducted an online experiment with 595 participants from the US and UK to investigate how provenance information altered users' accuracy perceptions and trust in visual content shared on social media. We found that provenance information often lowered trust and caused users to doubt deceptive media, particularly when it revealed that the media was composited. We additionally tested conditions where the provenance information itself was shown to be incomplete or invalid, and found that these states have a significant impact on participants' accuracy perceptions and trust in media, leading them, in some cases, to disbelieve honest media. Our findings show that provenance, although enlightening, is still not a concept well-understood by users, who confuse media credibility with the orthogonal (albeit related) concept of provenance credibility. We discuss how design choices may contribute to provenance (mis)understanding, and conclude with implications for usable provenance systems, including clearer interfaces and user education.Comment: Accepted to CSCW 202

Exploring Lightweight Interventions at Posting Time to Reduce the Sharing of Misinformation on Social Media

When users on social media share content without considering its veracity, they may unwittingly be spreading misinformation. In this work, we investigate the design of lightweight interventions that nudge users to assess the accuracy of information as they share it. Such assessment may deter users from posting misinformation in the first place, and their assessments may also provide useful guidance to friends aiming to assess those posts themselves. In support of lightweight assessment, we first develop a taxonomy of the reasons why people believe a news claim is or is not true; this taxonomy yields a checklist that can be used at posting time. We conduct evaluations to demonstrate that the checklist is an accurate and comprehensive encapsulation of people's free-response rationales. In a second experiment, we study the effects of three behavioral nudges -- 1) checkboxes indicating whether headings are accurate, 2) tagging reasons (from our taxonomy) that a post is accurate via a checklist and 3) providing free-text rationales for why a headline is or is not accurate -- on people's intention of sharing the headline on social media. From an experiment with 1668 participants, we find that both providing accuracy assessment and rationale reduce the sharing of false content. They also reduce the sharing of true content, but to a lesser degree that yields an overall decrease in the fraction of shared content that is false. Our findings have implications for designing social media and news sharing platforms that draw from richer signals of content credibility contributed by users. In addition, our validated taxonomy can be used by platforms and researchers as a way to gather rationales in an easier fashion than free-response.Comment: To appear in CSCW'2

Misinformation in Encounters : A Qualitative Study of Misinformation as a Social Phenomenon

Current research tends to see misinformation as a negative type of information in online environments, and fact-checking and improved information literacy are seen as solutions to the problem of misinformation. Considering misinformation only from this viewpoint is problematic because it does not consider misinformation as a type of information in our everyday information environment. The aim of this thesis is to broaden the understanding of misinformation as a nuanced concept and as a social and situated phenomenon affected by different factors. Encounters are used as means of clarifying misinformation. New knowledge of misinformation is needed to better address it and problems with it in different contexts and situations. This thesis adopts the definition of misinformation as inaccurate, incomplete, vague, or ambiguous information that is affected by social, cultural, historical, contextual, and situational factors. It studies the misinformation people encounter in their everyday lives, what factors affect it (specifically, what role encounters play in this process), how misinformation can be studied, and how to manage misinformation more efficiently. These questions were studied in the context of support with information (i.e. holistic ways to help people access, use, and understand information) and, more specifically, in two contexts where such support is given: asylum seekers supported by volunteers and youth supported by youth services. In these contexts, misinformation may be extremely challenging, but simply providing accurate information without considering factors surrounding misinformation is inadequate, and suitable ways of providing and discussing information should be developed. Misinformation was studied indirectly through interviews with people who provided support with information (i.e. volunteers and youth service workers). The analysis of the interview discussions contributed to the qualitative methodological approaches to studying misinformation. Both direct questions and indirect discussions on misinformation were found to be important for eliciting rich data. The empirical findings revealed different types of misinformation connected with authorities and official structures (outdated, incomplete, or conflicting information and perceived intimidation). Different strategies can be used when giving support with information to make misinformation less challenging, the most important of which is to encounter all people with respect and as human beings when supporting their access to and understanding of information. The research findings highlighted the importance of encounters. The framework for caring encounter was used for analysing the social factors that influence misinformation. Caring encounters mitigate misinformation, whereas uncaring encounters or a complete lack of encounters make it challenging for people to access, understand, and use information. The research findings can be used to improve information support and services by addressing factors surrounding misinformation. Misinformation is, thus, a social construct that should be placed in the wider context of information and seen as an unavoidable part of our information environment.Misinformation ses oftast inom aktuell forskning som en negativ typ av information på internet, och faktagranskning och bättre informationskompetens ses som lösningar till misinformation. Att se på misinformation enbart ur denna synvinkel är problematiskt eftersom då förstås misinformation inte som en del av vår vardagliga informationsmiljö. Syftet med denna avhandling är att förstå misinformation som ett nyanserat begrepp och socialt fenomen som påverkas av olika faktorer. Möten används som en faktor för att klargöra misinformation. Ny kunskap om misinformation behövs för att bättre förstå och lösa de problem som uppstår i olika kontexter och situationer där misinformation förekommer. Denna avhandling använder definitionen av misinformation som felaktig, ofullständig, oklar och mångtydig information som påverkas av sociala, kulturella, historiska, kontextuella och situationsbundna faktorer. Det undersöks hurdan misinformation människor kommer i kontakt med i sin vardag, vilka faktorer som påverkar misinformationen och mera specifikt, hurdan roll bemötande har i den processen. Vidare fokuserar avhandlingen på hur misinformation kan studeras och vad man kan göra åt den. Dessa frågor forskas i kontexten av stöd med information (holistiska sätt att hjälpa andra med tillgång, förståelse och användning av information), som består av ytterligare två sammanhang: asylsökande som stöds av volontärer och unga som stöds av ungdomsservice. Misinformation kan vara ett stort problem i dessa sammanhang, men det är inte tillräckligt att enbart ge rätt information utan den måste ges och diskuteras på ett för mottagaren lämpligt sätt, dvs. läggas in i en större kontext. I denna avhandling studerades misinformation indirekt via människor som ger stöd med information, dvs. volontärer och ungdomsservicearbetare. Genom att analysera diskussionen i intervjuerna, bidrog denna studie till den kvalitativa forskningen om misinformation. Både direkta frågor och indirekt diskussion behövs för att samla in mångsidiga data. De empiriska resultaten visade att det finns olika typer av misinformation i samband med myndigheter och officiella strukturer: föråldrad, ofullständig och motstridig information samt upplevt hot. Det finns olika strategier som kan användas för att lindra problemen med misinformation. Viktigast är att bemöta en människa med respekt för att stöda hens tillgång till och förståelse av information. Resultaten i denna avhandling visade hur viktiga möten är. Ramverket för vårdande möte användes för att analysera de sociala faktorer som definierar misinformation. Ett vårdande möte kan göra det lättare att hantera misinformation medan icke-vårdande möten och brist på möten överlag försämrar människors möjlighet att nå, förstå och använda information. Resultaten kan användas för att utveckla stöd med information och informationstjänster genom att särskilt betona faktorer som påverkar misinformation. Misinformation är ett socialt begrepp som borde läggas in i en större sammanhang och ses som en oundviklig och naturlig del av vår informationsmiljö

Geographic information extraction from texts

A large volume of unstructured texts, containing valuable geographic information, is available online. This information – provided implicitly or explicitly – is useful not only for scientific studies (e.g., spatial humanities) but also for many practical applications (e.g., geographic information retrieval). Although large progress has been achieved in geographic information extraction from texts, there are still unsolved challenges and issues, ranging from methods, systems, and data, to applications and privacy. Therefore, this workshop will provide a timely opportunity to discuss the recent advances, new ideas, and concepts but also identify research gaps in geographic information extraction