Online Social Media

As the overall media landscape has changed, there has been several ominous developments. Rather than using digital tools to inform people and elevate civic discussions, individuals and/or organizations have taken advantage of social and digital platforms to deceive, mislead, or harm others through creating or disseminating rumors, misinformation, and disinformation that are defined as follows:

• Rumor is defined as “informally improvised news” that typically spreads in scenarios where its truth value appears to be uncertain and vague. It does not necessarily have to be false, it may contain elements of truth that are not verified yet by authentic sources or official agencies.
• Misinformation is the false information that is shared with others without the intent to mislead. People share misinformation because they believe the information is true when, in fact, it is not.
• Disinformation is information that is deliberately created and distributed to mislead, harm, or manipulate a person, social group, organization, or country. Disinformation is not necessarily false information. Even true information can be presented in misleading ways and thus form the grist of a targeted disinformation campaign.

Research Objective

To create efficient crisis communication and emergency response tools to tackle the propagation of rumors, misinformation, and disinformation on social media during crisis events.