Everyday encounters with misinformation online: examining sources, topics and modes

Abstract

Misinformation research tends to be topic-driven, focused on a narrow band of sources and media formats, and studied in abstraction from individuals’ everyday lives. In contrast, this study examines adults’ in situ encounters with suspected misinformation to better understand how it is experienced in daily life. Through a digital diary study, we collected examples of news and information participants encounter and identify as false, misleading or untrustworthy. Participants encountered misinformation about ‘everyday’ topics, like business and economics, and in varying modalities, like text-based and multimodal formats. Further, participants’ everyday perceptions of misinformation are shaped by changing news logics, as evidenced by their identification of mainstream and alternative news sources as prominent propagators of false and misleading content. These findings raise questions about the influence of sociocultural and sociotechnical factors in shaping online users’ perceptions and experiences of misinformation.