Credible Sources Of Information Research Articles

Comprehensive Contraceptive Education Intervention in a College Setting: Design and Methodology

Background: Unintended pregnancy continues to be a public health concern across the nation. National data demonstrates the highest rates of unintended pregnancy occurs in women who are 18 to 24 years old. Providing practical and meaningful health education about contraception has the potential to reduce unintended pregnancy and improve quality of life for young adults. This paper describes the design and methodology for a comprehensive contraceptive education intervention at a public university. Methods: Convenience sampling was used with a custom survey conducted in Women’s Health classes from 2015-2021. Surveys contained questions about demographic characteristics, knowledge of contraception options, sources of knowledge, stress levels, and confidence in knowledge. Students completed a pretest, received a comprehensive contraception health education lecture, and completed a post-test. Data collection was approved by the university’s IRB, and analyses were conducted using SPSS Version 27. Conclusion: At a time when reproductive freedom, choice, and justice is scrutinized and suppressed, it is imperative that young adults maintain and understand the importance of having control over when, where, and how they decide to have children if they desire to do so. There is a need for continued comprehensive health education and appropriate resources at the university level. The use of assessments, building trusted professor-student relationships, and exploring credible and reliable information sources can be used to reduce the number of unintended pregnancies for college-aged students. If significant, the replication of the design and methods could have a significant impact on the public health problem of unintended pregnancies, maternal health equity, and reproductive justice.

Exploring the Social Media Culture of Commenting: Youtube Users Sentiments of “Misinformation” on International News Media Sphere.

Abstract In the 21st century, the Internet has continued to play a role in breaking news and especially in emergency situations. Social media as an alternate public sphere provides users a platform to seek out clarification, debate, and spread information. Information that might be perceived to be misinformation has become a challenge in both the local news and the international media sphere. Although different scholars have debated this aspect, a review of the relevant literature indicates that few scholars have explored this issue in line with the culture of commenting. The culture of news consumers in the digital age shapes the development of news stories as they seek to find a credible source of information for consumption. This study recognizes that the assumption of misinformation is a very complex problem that is subject to diverse cultural analysis and incessant discourse among experts. Therefore, this study explored the sentiments of YouTube users in the international media sphere in regards to perceived misinformation and the social media culture of commenting. The study investigated YouTube as a communicative platform through the analysis of the content of YouTube channels owned by the media. The study utilized ExportComments.com, a data extraction tool to extract both quantitative and qualitative data from the YouTube channels, and conducted a thematic content qualitative analysis of the comments. This study contributes to the overall public sphere theory. It is imperative for the media to adapt to pro-truth while audience engagement and news media literacy are vital in the age of fake news.

Role of Electronic Media in Politics of Punjab, Pakistan: A Case Study of Lahore

Electronic media had been the most important forum in exchanging different ideas and political awareness, therefore shaping the political opinion and getting change in political steup of Punjab. Researcher aims at measuring how educated people are persuaded by political talk shows about national issues. About 200 respondents of this study were the students belong to Colleges and Universities of Lahore, Pakistan. Purposive and convenient sampling techniques were used for data collection where questionnaires were as a primary tool of data collection. The findings indicated that viewers of talk shows have greater influence on youth and played important role in giving political awareness. Typically most of people showing their great interest and time in watching talk shows during prime time hours. Basic purpose was to identify how electronic media affected the political perception and mobilization among people of Pakistan. The aim was also to measure show talk shows influenced the political perception over different issues. The resutls of the present study were based survey method conducted from people of punjab, which belong to different age groups, gender, education level and profession. Findings revealed a significant correlation among variables. In this research paper the majority of respondents thought that Talk shows guide the people to comprehend political issues and these talk shows are most credible source of information.

War on Drugs: The Readability and Comprehensibility of Illegal Drug Awareness Campaign Brochures

Information communicated and produced by the government is essentially fundamental as the government is set and deemed as a reliable and a credible source of information. This study assessed the readability, comprehensibility, and document design of two brochures on prohibited drugs awareness, which were produced and distributed by the Dangerous Drugs Board (DDB), a government agency that is responsible in instituting policies about the use of illegal drugs in the Philippines. Using both qualitative and quantitative methods, a total number of 120 participants comprised of students, those employed, the unemployed, and drug patients from a rehabilitation center answered two 10-item multiple choice questionnaires and Likert scales to assess and evaluate the comprehensibility and document design of the two brochures. Using the Coh-Metrix tool to analyze the readability of the two brochures, results showed that the two existing brochures were not that readable with the huge discrepancy of the readability levels of the docments against the 9-10 normative values of the reading tool utilized. The results of the participants’ scores which were categorized as instructional or assisted level exhibited that the two brochures were not that comprehensible. Lastly, it was found that the designs of the documents were poor as some violations like small font size, pixelated pictures, and non-observance of color schemes were present. This paper argues that government agencies should produce information brochures that are patterned to the standards of Plain Language Movement in order to help the lay people grasp important information such as drug awareness.

Exploration of Barriers and Facilitators to Optimal Emergency Department Care of Sickle Cell Disease: Opportunities for Patient–Physician Partnerships to Improve Care

Sickle cell disease patients commonly present to an emergency department (ED) due to acute vaso-occlusive pain episodes (VOEs), also known as vaso-occlusive crises (VOCs). Unsatisfactory patient care leads to preventable morbidity, mortality, and substantial financial costs. This study investigated the current use of sickle cell disease patient-directed physician education (PDPE) in the clinical setting and also explored opportunities for improvement. A qualitative phenomenologic design was used with semi-structured in-depth interviews. Open-ended questions were used to probe participant’s experiences with EDs, the feasibility of a PDPE program as well as barriers and facilitators to PDPE. A total of nine patients and eight physicians participated in the study. Three major themes were identified: divergent challenges to patient recommendations, new targets for sickle cell disease education and triage process: not heard and not seen. Numerous challenges exist to the implementation and optimization of PDPE with sickle cell disease triage processes and nursing support identified as influential factors. Paramount to the process of improving PDPE is physicians perceiving patients as credible sources of information, especially as it relates to generalized concerns of opioid dosing. A patient provided written or digital education tool can be considered to facilitate PDPE to ease communication strain on patients while increasing communication efficiency.

Health education teachers' historical bodies: constructing teacher identity and teaching information evaluation

PurposeThis article describes how Finnish health education teachers verbalise and construct their teacher identity based on their lifestyle, subject area and relationships with their students.Design/methodology/approachNarrative interviews were conducted amongst eight secondary and upper secondary school teachers. The nexus analysis was used to analyse teachers' methods of teaching students information-seeking, evaluation and critical thinking skills.FindingsThe teachers' historical bodies – their skills, interests, information-seeking habits and familiar sources – impacted the chosen teaching methods. The results indicate that teacher identity is constructed along different paths and is constantly performed and transformed in the classroom through interactions with students.Originality/valueThe study illustrates the reconstruction of teacher identity through interaction in interviews. Teachers act as role models, information gatekeepers and trustees who guide students to choose credible health information sources.

Can the adoption of health information on social media be predicted by information characteristics?

PurposeThis paper aims to explore the relationship between the characteristics of social media health information and its adoption. The purpose is to identify information characteristics that can be used to estimate the level of health information adoption in advance.Design/methodology/approachAccording to the Information Adoption Model (IAM), the study extracted ten information characteristics from the aspects of information quality and information source credibility. The sample data was collected from the top ten influential health accounts based on the Impact List of Sina Weibo to test the effectiveness of these characteristics in distinguishing information at different levels of adoption. The forecasting of information adoption level is regarded as a binary classification question in the study and support vector machine (SVM) is used to do the research.FindingsThe results indicate that ten information characteristics chosen in this study are related to information adoption. Based on these information characteristics, it is feasible to estimate the level of health information adoption, and the estimation accuracy is relatively high.Originality/valueA lot of work has been done in previous researches to reveal the factors that influence information adoption. The theoretical contribution of this work is to further discuss how to use the influencing factors to do some predictive work for information adoption. In practice, it will help health information publishers to disseminate high-quality health information more effectively as well as promote the adoption of health information.

“I just trust what Google says, it’s the Bible”: Exploring young, Black gay and other men who have sex with men’s evaluation of sexual health information sources in Toronto, Canada

While sexual health literature identifies youths’ sexual health information sources and its impact on their sexual practices, little is known about the way youth evaluate the credibility of this information. This knowledge gap is significant among young, Black gay and other men who have sex with men (YBGM) who belong to intersectional populations disproportionately impacted by HIV and other STIs. We conducted a qualitative study using constructivist grounded theory to explore YBGM’s approaches to evaluating sexual health information sources’ credibility. Intersectionality and the socioecological model informed our analysis. We explored connections between social locations (e.g., race, sexual orientation) and socio-ecological environments and how their impact shaped YBGM’s evaluation of sexual health information. Findings revealed evaluation strategies varied by source: friends, the internet and healthcare providers. Friends’ information was deemed credible if they were older, shared social locations and provided embodied testimonials. Testimonials mirrored oral-traditions specific to Black populations where oral narratives help disseminate sensitive information in a culturally relevant way. Website selection was informed by YBGM’s social locations and ranged from being implicitly trusted to assessed by its association with established healthcare organizations. Many participants’ acceptance of healthcare providers’ information revealed patient-client power imbalances and a perception that providers’ actions reflected their institutions’ sexual health policies. Findings highlight a need for sexual health services to create culturally effective ways to disseminate information that accounts for the histories, contexts, and approaches YBGM use to identify credible sources of sexual health information.

Performance audit in the vision of public sector management. The case of Romania

Research Question: What is the impact of the performance audit missions on the activity of the Romanian public institutions? Motivation: Public resources' management and use, public sector entities' performance, in the context of the economic environment turbulences and of the complexity and heterogeneity of the public services demand are of interest to a wide range of interested parties. Thus, the informational valences of the performance audit represent for the public sector management, a credible and relevant information source to substantiate the decision-making process focused on performance and circumscribed to the community members. Idea: The paper includes an empirical research on the investigation of the public sector management perception regarding the impact of the performance audit missions performed by the Romanian Court of Accounts, on the public institutions activity. Data: Information regarding the performed missions and the entities subject to performance audit was collected by reviewing the Romanian Court of Accounts' portfolio of publications (available online on the institution's official website). The email addresses of the respondents were collected by consulting the official web pages of the audited entities (contact section). Tools: The research is based on the study of the public sector management’s perception regarding the performance audit missions performed by the Romanian Court of Accounts. In this regard, we developed and disseminated questionnaires to the management of public sector entities subject to performance audit within the period 2015-2019. Complementarily, in order to identify the tendencies and the respondents’ homogeneous perceptions, the descriptive analysis is completed by cluster analysis and multidimensional scaling. Data processing, clustering and the results’ analysis were performed using the SPSS statistical software. Findings: The research results show that performance auditing contributes to improving the economicity, efficiency and effectiveness in the public resources use, but its usefulness is inversely proportional to the professional experience of the respondents within the audited entity. The respondents also consider that the performance audits’ objectives are appropriate to the sensitive areas related to the activity of public institutions, and their results provide a fair image regarding the public resources' management and use. Concerning the performance audit reports, the respondents consider them objective, rigorous, credible, and the collaboration and communication of the auditors with the entity are appreciated as successful elements of the performance audit missions. Contribution: The paper adds value to the specialized literature, given that the performance audit issue in the vision of the public sector management has not been addressed in Romania, being also limited internationally. The research results are also of interest to both the professional and the socio-economic environment, concerned with the public sector entities performance.

The Crisis of Public Health and Infodemic: Analyzing Belief Structure of Fake News about COVID-19 Pandemic

False information about COVID-19 is being produced and disseminated on a large scale, impeding efforts to rapidly impose quarantines. Thus, in addition to the COVID-19 pandemic itself, an infodemic related with it is leading to social crises. This study therefore investigates who believes the misinformation that is being produced in the context of COVID-19. We choose two main factors—risk perception factor, so called psychometric paradigm, and communication factor—as independent variables that can affect belief in misinformation related to COVID-19. The results show that, among psychometric variables, perceived risk and stigma positively impact belief in fake news, whereas perceived benefit and trust have negative effects. Among communication factors, source credibility and the quantity of information reduce belief in fake news, whereas the credibility of information sources increases these beliefs. Stigma has the greatest explanatory power among the variables, followed by health status, heuristic information processing, trust, and subjective social class.

When and why employees of non‐profits promote their organizations: Determinants of positive staff‐word‐of‐mouth

Employees represent a credible source of information for prospective job applicants of non‐profit organizations. However, less is known about when and why staff actively promote their organizations. The authors develop a parsimonious model of determinants of positive staff‐word‐of‐mouth (SWOM) and test this model on the data from a survey of employees of a major Scandinavian missionary organization (Normisjon). The findings show that identification with the organization, organizational climate, and task satisfaction are significant determinants of positive SWOM. The pattern of effects differs for employees with and without formal leadership responsibility. For employees with such responsibilities, organizational identification has a greater effect and organizational climate a weaker effect on SWOM than for employees with no leadership responsibility. Based on the current findings and the broader literature on employer branding and recruitment, the authors offer tentative guidelines for how to increase positive SWOM for nonprofits.

The COVID-19 Infodemic: A Quantitative Analysis Through Facebook.

BackgroundSocial media is a crucial part of our daily life. Facebook, being the biggest social media platform, plays a significant role in the spread of information influencing the global response to the COVID-19 pandemic. Health care agencies like the World Health Organization (WHO) and Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) use social media as a platform to impart information regarding COVID-19; simultaneously, there is a spread of misinformation on social media, masking the credible sources of information. Our research aims to assess the utility of Facebook in providing misinformation and testing its “fact-check policy.”MethodsAn online search was conducted on Facebook by a newly created account to eliminate bias. The Facebook search bar was used to investigate multiple keywords. Data were tabulated in Microsoft Excel (Microsoft Corporation, Redmond, WA). Descriptive statistical analysis of Facebook accounts and posts was done using the Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS) version 26 (IBM Corp., Armonk, NY) while statistical importance was set a priority at a p-value of 0.05.ResultsOur study consisted of 454 Facebook posts. Most (22.5%) were posted by verified accounts and 23.9% by informal individual/group accounts. The tone for most (40.4%) COVID-19 information was serious while the most common (43.9%) topic was medical/public health. In total, 22.3% included misinformation, 19.6% were unverifiable, and 27.5% included correct information verifiable by the WHO or CDC.ConclusionsMisinformation/unverifiable information related to the COVID-19 crisis is spreading at a distressing rate on social media. We quantified the misinformation and tested Facebook’s “fact-check policy.” We advise strict initiatives to control this infodemic and advise future researches to evaluate the accuracy of content being circulated on other social media platforms.

Information Sources Utilized and Their Degree of Credibility as Perceived by the Fish Farmers in Manipur

The study was undertaken to analyze the information sources utilized and their degree of credibility as perceived by the fish farmers in three districts of Manipur viz., Imphal East, Imphal West and Thoubal. These districts were purposively selected following an ex-post-facto research based on the prevalence of fish farmers. A sample of 60 fish farmers were selected randomly from the districts; twenty (20) from each district. A structured interview schedule was used to collect the information through personal interview. Information sources were categorized broadly into three scores: 3-Regularly’, ‘2-Occasionally’, ‘1-Rarely’ and their credibility as 3-Highly Credible; 2-Moderately Credible; 1-Least Credible. The study revealed that among all the personal contact methods, majority of the respondents sought information from friends and neighbours, followed by contact with progressive fish farmers & opinion leaders, and contact with line departments with mean scores of 2.46, 2.32 and 1.67 respectively. Among the group contact methods, group discussion & meeting was the most frequently used information source by the fish farmers with mean score 2.74 followed by discussion with fish farmers and training programmes with mean scores of 2.54 and 1.77 respectively. Among the mass contact methods, radio was the most frequently used source of information with 2.88 mean score followed by newspaper and television with mean scores of 2.21 and 1.97 respectively. Friends and neighbours, contact with progressive fish farmers & opinion leaders and personal contact with faculty/ scientist were perceived as the most credible sources of information among all the personal contact methods with 2.98, 2.38 and 2.34 mean scores respectively. Among the group contact methods, group discussion & meeting was perceived as the most credible information source by the fish farmers with 2.76 mean score. Discussion with fish farmers served as the second most frequently used source with 2.53 mean score followed by training programmes with mean score 1.77. Among the mass contact methods, radio was the most frequently used with 2.84 mean score followed by television and internet with mean scores of 2.39 and 2.19 respectively.

An Experimental Investigation into Promoting Mental Health Service Use on Social Media: Effects of Source and Comments.

Mental health is an increasingly prevalent topic of public interest, but remains a complex area requiring focused research that must account for negative perceptions surrounding mental health issues. The current work explores the roles of social media information source credibility and valence of social media comments on health outcomes in such a mental health context. We used a 2 (message source: professional vs. layperson) × 3 (valence of comments: positive vs. negative vs. mixed) online experiment to examine the effects of source and valence of comments on trust, attitudes and intentions related to mental health information and services among 422 undergraduate students. Results supported the hypothesized model in which source influenced cognitive trust while comments influenced affective trust. Cognitive and affective trust both impacted attitudes towards mental health information which encourages the intention to share such information on social media. Additionally, affective trust impacted attitudes towards mental services which influenced intentions to seek them out. Source and valence of comments on social media impact different behavioral intentions regarding the use of mental health services. This study provides insights for future social media campaigns promoting mental health service use.

Exploring drivers for public engagement in social media communication with medical social influencers in China.

Social networking sites offer an important means for increasing the accessibility and enabling new forms of health communication between the public and medical social influencers (MSIs). MSIs have a social presence and are perceived as a credible source of health-related information. A research gap, however, exists in understanding the communication strategies employed by MSIs and the factors driving the public to engage in health communication with MSIs. This study, therefore, developed a new conceptual framework incorporating health communication, dialogic and interpersonal communication by employing quantitative content analysis to examine public engagement with MSI communication on the largest microblogging site in China, Sina Weibo. The analysis yielded insights into how the usefulness of health-related information provided alongside the interactive dialogue and affective practices played an active role in engaging the public. The public sought health-related information primarily to address issues of concern for well-being and a high level of engagement in terms of online shares, likes, and comments was found. The use of multimedia made the site more appealing, resulting in likes while the expression of emotions by MSIs generated likes and comments. The need to connect with other online users and have a sense of community was reflected in engagement through sharing useful MSI posts by the public. By identifying influential MSIs on social networking sites, health information providers such as organizations and the government can raise awareness of health issues to foster a healthy lifestyle and contribute to better living in the community.

Policy Recommendations to Promote Integrated Mental Health Care for Children and Youth.

Policy Recommendations to Promote Integrated Mental Health Care for Children and Youth.

Perceptions and Attitudes Toward Mobile Health in Development of an Exclusive Breastfeeding Tool: Focus Group Study With Caregivers and Health Promoters in the Dominican Republic.

BackgroundDespite growing interest in the use of technology to improve health outcomes in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs), local attitudes toward mobile health (mHealth) use in these settings are minimally understood. This is especially true in the Dominican Republic, where mHealth interventions are starting to emerge. This information is critical for developing effective mHealth interventions to address public health issues, such as low exclusive breastfeeding (EBF) rates, which can lead to poor outcomes. With an EBF rate of 5% in the first 6 months of life, the Dominican Republic has one of the lowest EBF rates worldwide.ObjectiveThis study aims to describe the current use of information and communication technology (ICT) and to analyze the attitudes and perceptions related to using mHealth interventions among caregivers of children aged ≤5 years and health promoters in the Dominican Republic. Findings can inform mHealth strategies aimed at improving EBF in this, and other, LMICs.MethodsParticipants were recruited from 3 outpatient sites: the Niños Primeros en Salud program at Centro de Salud Divina Providencia in Consuelo (rural setting) and Clínica de Familia La Romana and its program Módulo de Adolescentes Materno Infantil in La Romana (urban setting). Focus groups were conducted with caregivers and community health promoters to identify the use, attitudes, perceptions, and acceptability of mHealth as well as barriers to EBF. Discussions were conducted in Spanish, guided by semistructured interview guides. All sessions were audio-recorded and later transcribed. Thematic content analysis was conducted in Spanish by two bilingual researchers and was structured around a hybrid behavioral theory framework to identify salient themes.ResultsAll participants (N=35) reported having a mobile phone, and 29 (83%) participants had a smartphone. Sources for obtaining health information included the internet, physicians and clinic, family and friends, health promoters, and television. Barriers to mHealth use included the cost of internet service, privacy concerns, and perceived credibility of information sources. Participants indicated the desire for, and willingness to use, an mHealth intervention to support breastfeeding. The desired features of a possible mHealth intervention included offering diverse methods of information delivery such as images and video content, text messages, and person-to-person interaction as well as notifications for appointments, vaccines, and feeding schedules. Other important considerations were internet-free access and content that included maternal and child health self-management topics beyond breastfeeding.ConclusionsThere is a high level of acceptance of ICT tools for breastfeeding promotion among caregivers in urban and rural areas of the Dominican Republic. As mHealth tools can contribute to increased breastfeeding self-efficacy, identifying desirable features of such a tool is necessary to create an effective intervention. Participants wanted to receive trusted and reliable information through various formats and were interested in information beyond breastfeeding.

Critical Thinking about Information Credibility in the Management Classroom

The ability to evaluate the credibility of information is a fundamental part of critical thinking that students need to access knowledge and to learn using evidence. Yet, studies show that business students often fail to develop this capability and research highlights a need for new approaches to teach students how to evaluate the credibility of information sources. This paper builds on prior literature to propose a two-stage credibility evaluation model that utilizes a combination of screening factors (bias, appearance) and credence factors (reputation, assurances, verification, and endorsements) to assess the credibility of information sources. In contrast to existing approaches, which often rely on lists of questions to evaluate information credibility, this model aims to provide students with a greater conceptual understanding for how to assess the credibility of information. This study also proposes that implementing the two-stage model with an enhanced bibliography will improve students’ critical evaluation skills by allowing educators to provide more process-oriented feedback and by broadening the scope of feedback to consider both gullibility errors (including information that is not credible) and incredulity errors (excluding credible information).

Ask Your Mother! Teachers’ Informational Authority Roles in Information-seeking and Evaluation Tasks in Health Education Lessons

ABSTRACT This paper contributes to the pedagogical discussion on how to promote critical thinking among adolescents in modern media environments. It argues that teachers play an essential role in guiding students’ assessment of and decision between credible information sources. The study was carried out among eighth-grade health education teachers and students in a secondary school in Finland. Nexus analysis was used as a theoretical lens with which to analyze lesson observation data and teacher interviews. The findings indicate that teachers moved fluently between the informational authority roles of a cognitive authority and a trustee. Moments of perplexity in which teachers were not able to act in these informational authority roles created tension in the classroom; however, they also promoted diversified learning.

Can middle schoolers learn to read the web like experts? Possibilities and limits of a strategy-based intervention

This paper describes the strategies 8th graders used to evaluate the credibility of unfamiliar websites after a curricular intervention. Website topics were somewhat contested, and students could navigate the open web in order to assess the credibility of the sites. Findings reveal that students were more likely to leave the presented webpages and investigate the sources before making a credibility judgment after the curricular intervention. Furthermore, after the intervention students were more likely to prefer a more credible source of information over a less credible source when the two sources were presented. However, few students improved in their ability to assess a single deceptive website, despite applying several of the strategies taught in the intervention. We conclude that strategy- and skills-based information literacy instruction holds promise but must be paired with foundational knowledge about how the internet is structured and the kinds of online sources.