Project Information

This research was made through a User Experience class in the School of Media Arts and Design. Directed by Dr. Chen Guo, our goal was to research the influence and rise of misinformation and fake news around social media. We were tasked to research case study’s, interview participants on their view on social media, and collect data of how misinformation is shown through short video platforms such as Instagram Reels and TikTok.

Goals & Scopes

The goals aimed throughout this research is to study the human aspects of fake news and misinformation online. The aim is to find better ways to create strategies and methods of avoiding misinformation and fake news online. The hope is to find important information from literature reviews, peoples activity on social media platforms, conducting interviews, and screening surveys surrounding Instagram Reels and TikTok.

Experiencing misinformation can:

• Implement fake mindsets

• Receive fake information

• Spread false news that could lead to more fake news

“It is important that we need to understand and study the users thought process when viewing these videos.”

Research Process

Approaching this study, I have conducted three research questions.

Literature Review

There has been other researchers who have been studying this topic. Below are related research articles that I have viewed around this topic:

• Designing Media Provenance Indicators to Combat Fake Media

• Encounters with Visual Misinformation and Labels Across Platforms

• Fake News on Facebook and Twitter: Investigating How People (don’t) Investigate

Although these researches have assisted the problem with misinformation and fake news online, more research is needed for the current usage of popular video sharing platforms like TikTok and Instagram.

Methods & Approaches

Going forward with the research, the data collection procedures were made and conducted to collect information on users experience with misinformation and fake news on social media platforms. The data collection procedures for this research were:

• Questionnaire and Surveys

• Think-aloud interviews

• Direct Observations

• Video/Audio Recordings

• Documented Reviews

Screening Survey

The data collection procedure was first initiated with emailing and contacting a wide variety of individuals with an online screening survey created within the James Madison University, QuestionPro survey.

Semi-structured Interviews

Based off of the screening surveys, I have interviewed two individuals who was one that was employed with a paid salary occupation, as well as a senior college student. The interview was conducted in person with audio and video recordings consisted during the interview with the interviewee’s consent. The interview was completed through an Interview Protocol Document which can be viewed below.

Doing semi-structured interviews assists with the process of how the user interact with misinformation and fake news online. The process was made through screening questions, a think-aloud process, and observation notes.

Think Aloud & Observation

Throughout the process of the interview, the interviewee were tasked to view six different videos involving misinformation and fake news. They were asked to speak out loud their thinking process and what made them do certain actions. During this process, I have collected short notes of key actions that were used and not used.

Throughout the respondents of the online screening surveys, I have received about five results of individuals who have viewed and completed the survey. The individuals were an range of 18-28 years old. Ranging through students to employed workers, as well as often to not as frequent used social media users. The survey as a whole received around 43 completed responses.

Themes and Insights

During the interviews and think-aloud sessions, there were similarities of themes that were viewed throughout the process. The interviewees have viewed the misinformation warnings very well, which gave them a lot of assistance, knowing that the video is fake. Another was the comment section. They were very active with viewing the comments of the videos. Captions were also well viewed. However, some user interfaces that was not used as frequently, such as the likes, and shares. It have collected these observations as well as create a journey map.

Research Findings

From the observation notes I have taken. Users do not really seem to use the likes and shares features for video platforms. As stated from the interviewees:

“I don't really pay attention to the amount of shares I don't really share that often. Mostly because I don't. Then I don't think the videos that I saw were relevant to me. My friend groups wouldn’t get anything much from it.”

“I just watched them whether because they pop on my for you page or because they caught my attention somehow. But I usually don't pay attention to the number of likes that much.”

As a result, the interviewees were able to find depict almost all of the videos to be involved in misinformation or not. Most videos shown, the individuals would say that they would not share the videos, knowing that it involves fake news. The most appreciated feature is the blurred screen warning before viewing a video. The individuals also offers some helpful strategies to help prevent the spread of misinformation and fake news. They have found the most useful user interface feature is the warning and fact checker within the videos. They have stated although comments do help, it could also lead to negative effects if focused on too in deep.

Conclusion

Within this research, it seems that from the research findings that users appreciate the warnings in video platforms. We also notice that some features aren’t as used frequent as we thought. Users do not pay attention to likes and shares as much when viewing videos. Most focused features are comments and the video itself. They interpret the videos themselves with the help of the comments and their own mindset and morals.

Users are aware the spread of misinformation throughout the video sharing platform world. After showing the warnings within the videos from the interviews, they appreciated of how it assisted them to know that the video is misinformed.

This is important because with a warning feature being more utilized in video sharing platforms, it can help a large amount to prevent misinformation throughout the social media world. This is something to take in consideration to the large companies of video sharing platforms. There should be more features that involves fact checking to help the user when viewing a video.

As a result, we have learned that there is a large amount of misinformation out there regarding health, politics, and more. However, with the usage of warnings and fact checking features on the applications. It does assist the users with knowing that the video is fake or misinformed. The main takeaway is that we need to spread the idea of implementing fact checking warnings in all video sharing platforms to help our knowledge and mindset of the news, current events, people and much more. To view the full report with interviews, audio, and past reports, view below.