In the Suicide Forest: How Social Media News Sharing Is Affecting News Journalism

In the digital age, social media (SM) platforms have changed how people access, verify, and share news. This study explores the effect of source credibility and user commentary on news-sharing behaviors among Arabs in the United Arab Emirates (UAE). Using media literacy theory, the research examines self-reported credibility-checking and how user commentary may impact news-sharing behavior. A survey of 324 respondents shows that while most use SM daily as a primary news source, nearly one-third do not share news. Therefore, the analysis includes an analytic subsample of 220 news sharers. Smartphones lead in news sharing, though usage patterns differ across platforms. Respondents express high confidence in their ability to assess credibility. Commentary is standard but only weakly related to credibility checks. There are notable differences in news sharing, credibility checks, and user commentary based on age and gender. The results highlight the need to enhance practical media literacy for more responsible news sharing in the UAE. The importance of strengthening transparent sourcing practices, fostering audience trust through credible, verifiable content, and actively engaging with user commentary to encourage informed, responsible news-sharing behaviors on social media platforms are among the implications for newsrooms in the Emirates.

Through the advent of social media, news achieves a life of its own online. The media organisations partly lose control over the diffusion process, and simultaneously individuals gain power over the process, and become opinion leaders for others. This study focusses on news sharers and news shared (or rather, interacted), and has three RQ:s: 1) What characterises the people who share news in social media, 2) Have the characteristics of interacted news changed over time? and 3) Are there differences between news content interacted by ordinary people and news highlighted by media organisations? Two different studies have been conducted: A representative survey and a quantitative content analysis. 
 The main results are that the opinion leaders differ from the majority by being younger, with a greater political interest, single and more digital in their general lifestyle, both concerning news consumption and other aspects. The content analysis shows that the most interacted news on social media follow the traditional news values rather well, with a few exceptions. Most apparent is that interacted news is more positive over time and compared to print front-page news. Accidents and crime dominate print front-pages, while politics is more prominent in interacted news.

Are journalists and Facebook users equally interested in political news? Introducing the conceptualization and measurement of the “news sharing gap”, this study compares the sharing of political news by Facebook users to the production of political news by news media organizations. To paint a broad picture of these differences, we compare the news sharing gap (a) across election and routine periods and (b) across eight countries: Australia, Austria, Brazil, Germany, the Netherlands, Romania, Spain, and the United Kingdom. Analyzing 265,714 articles shared over 12 million times on Facebook, findings show that elections are broadly linked to increases in political news publication, but even larger increases in political news sharing. The study reveals how, overall, political news is shared more often than news publication patterns would suggest, proposing higher political interest by Facebook users than previously thought. In most cases, political news sharing far outpaces political news production in the form of a “negative” news sharing gap, with the relative demand for political news (in the form of news sharing) being higher than the supply. Lastly, building upon previous work, we propose and validate a distant supervised machine learning method for multilingual, large-scale identification of political news across distinct languages, contexts and time periods.

This article provides a review of scientific, peer-reviewed articles that examine the relationship between news sharing and social media in the period from 2004 to 2014. A total of 461 articles were obtained following a literature search in two databases ( Communication & Mass Media Complete [CMMC] and ACM), out of which 109 were deemed relevant based on the study’s inclusion criteria. In order to identify general tendencies and to uncover nuanced findings, news sharing research was analyzed both quantitatively and qualitatively. Three central areas of research—news sharing users, content, and networks—were identified and systematically reviewed. In the central concluding section, the results of the review are used to provide a critical diagnosis of current research and suggestions on how to move forward in news sharing research.

Aim/Purpose: Despite the widespread presence of fake news on the internet, many individuals continue to share information without verifying its accuracy. In response, this study examined two types of news-sharing behaviors, Unverified News Sharing and Authenticating News Before Sharing, and their influence on the spread of fake news on social media. Fake news awareness was also incorporated into the paper as a moderating factor. Background: The proposed conceptual model illustrates how an individual’s general approach to news sharing can predict the behavior of fake news sharing. The model was further expanded to include the construct of fake news awareness to understand how it moderates the behavioral intention to share fake news. Methodology: A survey method was employed to collect data from 450 respondents in India and to test the conceptual model. Structural equation modeling was employed. Contribution: It contributes by developing a framework to examine the multifaceted nature of news-sharing behavior and its role in the dissemination of false information on social media. The study expands on the fake news literature and offers practical recommendations for policymakers aiming to reduce the spread of fake news on social media. Findings: The findings revealed that unverified news sharing is a strong predictor of fake news dissemination while authenticating news before sharing reduces fake news sharing. Moreover, fake news awareness was found to weaken the link between unverified news sharing and fake news distribution. Recommendation for Researchers: It is recommended that researchers investigate how different cultures, regions, or countries respond to fake news, including variations in awareness, susceptibility, and methods of combating it. Researchers could also explore the psychological factors that make individuals more susceptible to fake news and the role of fact-checking and algorithm changes in improving user awareness of fake news. Future Research: Integrating moderating variables like demographic factors and conducting longitudinal studies will strengthen the model’s reliability and adaptability, providing a more detailed insight into news-sharing behavior.

One might think that, compared to traditional media, social media sites allow people to choose more freely what to read and what to share, especially for politically oriented news. However, reading and sharing habits originate from deeply ingrained behaviors that might be hard to change. To test the extent to which this is true, we propose a Political News Sharing (PoNS) model that holistically captures four key aspects of social psychology: gratification, selective exposure, socialization, and trust & intimacy. Using real instances of political news sharing in Twitter, we study the predictive power of these features. As one might expect, news sharing heavily depends on what one likes and agrees with (selective exposure). Interestingly, it also depends on the credibility of a news source, i.e., whether the source is a social media friend or a news outlet (trust & intimacy) as well as on the informativeness or the enjoyment of the news article (gratification). Finally, a Twitter user tends to share articles matching his own political leaning but, at times, the user also shares politically opposing articles, if those match the leaning of his followers (socialization). Based on our PoNS model, we build a prototype of a news sharing application that promotes serendipitous political readings along our four dimensions.

This study seeks to establish whether news sharing in social media is a mature field of research by using bibliometrics as a tool. The Web of Science database was searched for articles that contained the term ‘news sharing’ in titles, keywords, and abstracts. A total of 133 articles was obtained, which enabled us to address the question of whether there are well-established journals and authors that cover the subject. The results show a certain ambiguity, which could explain why the chosen subject matter is often studied in fields outside of Communication Studies; however, while studies on news sharing are conducted by researchers from heterogeneous fields, this has not translated into greater interdisciplinarity.

What explains news sharing in polarized social media environments? Will polarization of the audiences further polarize news organizations? In this article, we connect existing theories of news sharing and gatekeeping to describe the conditions under which social media polarization will increase polarization among news organizations. Our results show that a polarized readership will further polarize news organizations. However, polarization will be larger for organizations with lower reputations. To test our theory, we introduce readers to a statistical design that estimates news sharing behaviour from observational social media data. The model allows researchers to study the relationship between news sharing behaviour and gatekeeping in political communication.

BackgroundMonitoring food marketing that reaches children is key to effective implementation of any regulation. The Best-ReMaP European Union Joint Action aimed to test the feasibility of using monitoring protocols (developed by the World Health Organization’s Regional Office for Europe [WHO-Euro]) in the public health sector, to inform EU-wide monitoring plans. In Republic of Srpska, BiH, we piloted the WHO ‘CLICK’ Framework step, ‘L – Landscape of campaigns’, created to assess the nature of digital food and beverage marketing that children are potentially exposed to when using their preferred digital media.MethodsThis mixed methods pilot study analysed 235 Instagram and Facebook posts from 10 brands/products popular among children in Republic of Srpska, and 24 videos of two YouTube influencers, between January-April 2023. The WHO Nutrient Profile Model (1st edition, 2015) was used to assess ads’ eligibility to be marketed to children. With WHO-Euro monitoring Protocols we assessed the promotional techniques (ad’s creative power) used by brands and YouTube influencers. Finally, we assessed feasibility at every step of the process.ResultsResearch capacity and coding were among the main identified challenges in the pilot. Our learnings contributed to updates of the WHO Protocols and the EU- framework guidance. Regarding the food marketing landscape, the most frequently advertised food categories on social media and in YouTube Influencers’ content were cakes, sweet biscuits and pastries (31% and 22.7% respectively) and chocolate and sugar confectionery (27.5% and 14.7% respectively). None of the social media ads were eligible to be marketed to children and only of 2 of the 24 YouTube influencers’ marketing instances were eligible. Most ads featured elements potentially appealing to teens, 88% on Facebook and 72% on Instagram. The most frequently used persuasive appeals on social media were reference to holidays, travel, or adventure (23%), followed by taste (12.5%) and premium/contest (11.5%). YouTube influencers predominantly presented branded foods (62.5%). Only one influencer video featured a marketing disclosure. Food cue contexts varied between the two influencers, depending on their target groups. One mostly posted videos filmed at home, with child appeals and referred positively to the food featured; the other presented food as a secondary object and in neutral rather than positive contexts.ConclusionThe WHO-Euro ‘landscape’ Protocol is a feasible tool for Member States to evaluate digital food marketing. Facilitators were: capacity/resources, access to a knowledge/experience exchange, and regular protocol updates. The analysis shows that in Republic of Srpska, BiH, powerful marketing of unhealthy foods appealing to children takes place on children’s favoured social media platforms and via influencers with child-appealing content. Mandatory, government-led restrictions, accompanied by regular monitoring are needed to protect children’s health.Supplementary InformationThe online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1186/s41043-025-01009-8.

This study examines how individual and situational factors within the social media environment influence different types of news sharing, namely, informative, relational, and expressive sharing. Methodologically, this study uses survey data collected from a representative sample of South Korean media users by Nielsen Company Korea. We found the differential role individual and situational factors play in different types of social media news sharing. Our results offer a clearer portrait of how and why people share news via social media where the characteristics of both news stories and audiences are just one piece of the puzzle that determines news sharing.

This research explores the role of social media in the political construction of identity, analyzing how these platforms mediate the expression and formation of individual and group political identities. The focus is on how social media changes the dynamics of communication and social interaction, facilitating the formation of “echo chambers” and increasing political polarization. Additionally, this study highlights challenges such as disinformation and the implications of social media for the health of democracy. As a researcher, I aim to highlight the broader implications of using social media in identity politics. By analyzing the impact of social media on political dynamics in Indonesia, this study reveals how social media influences public perception and political decisions. This study identifies how social media can be used as a tool to mobilize political support, but also how these platforms can spread disinformation and reinforce political polarization. Based on these concerns, researchers have not yet found research results that examine how social media specifically impacts the construction of political identity. This research aims to highlight how social media not only acts as a communication tool but also as a medium that influences the way individuals view and express their political identity. Through a qualitative approach, this study provides new insights into the impact of social media in contemporary political dynamics and the importance of digital literacy in addressing issues of identity politics in the digital era.

News sharing has become prevalent on many social media platforms. Users are not only exposed to news shared by others, but also actively share information with a diverse set of motivations. In this work, we propose five news sharing motivations based on the intrinsic and extrinsic factors found in prior literature. Through an online experiment, we further examine how a host of factors, including motivations, influence participants' decision to share news online. We then prompt participants to switch their original decision for extra compensation, observing how different news types, motivational and demographic factors may affect the switch. Our analysis suggests that sharing decisions can be reversed when a strong external stimulus (higher bonus) is presented. Further, there are motivational factors that independently influence participants' reversal decisions. Finally, using our work as an empirical basis, we propose designs for future new sharing systems.

This article takes a close look at news sharing on the immensely popular Chinese instant messaging app WeChat. The study is an example of how an affordances perspective can be useful for understanding a key concept of digital journalism, namely news sharing. Most research on news sharing focuses on its antecedents or consequences; in contrast, this study demonstrates how a focus on the affordances of WeChat can illuminate ways in which news sharing on social media in China works. It also explores how the interplay of the platform’s owner, Tencent’s commercial logics and the technology company’s relations with the state may have shaped WeChat’s news sharing through the lens of the political economy of communication. By analysing the platform’s nuanced interface design and its possible implications, the study finds that the affordances of WeChat can both enable and constrain users’ participation in news distribution.

Social media news sharing has become a central subject of scholarly research in communication studies. To test current theories, it is of an utmost importance to estimate the meaningful parameters of news sharing behavior from observational data. In this article, we retrieve measures of ideological congruence, issue salience, and media reputation to explain news sharing in social media. We describe how the proposed statistical model connects to different strands of the news sharing literature. We then exemplify the usefulness of the model with an analysis of the relationship between ideological congruence and issue salience. Results show that if ideology and salience correlate with each other, the preferences of ideologues (i.e., users who give higher weight to ideological congruence) will be overrepresented in observational data. This will result in the heightened perceptions of polarization. We test the performance of the model using data from Brazil, Argentina, and the United States.

Government Surveillance and Counter-Surveillance on Social and Mobile Media: The Case of Iran (2009)