Mocanu, Delia and Zhang, Qian and Karsai, Màrton and Quattrociocchi, Walter Collective attention in the age of (mis)information. Working Paper # /2014 (Submitted)
Full text not available from this repository.Abstract
In this work we study, on a sample of 2.3 million individuals, how Facebook users consumed different information at the edge of political discussion and news during the last Italian electoral competition. Pages are categorized, according to their topics and the communities of interests they pertain to, in a) alternative information sources (diffusing topics that are neglected by science and main stream media); b) online political activism; and c) main stream media. We show that attention patterns are similar despite the different qualitative nature of the information, meaning that unsubstantiated claims (mainly conspiracy theories) reverberate for as long as other information. Finally, we categorize users according to their interaction patterns among the different topics and measure how a sample of this social ecosystem (1279 users) responded to the injection of 2788 false information posts. Our analysis reveals that users which are prominently interacting with alternative information sources (i.e. more exposed to unsubstantiated claims) are more prone to interact with false claims.
| Item Type: | Working Paper (Working Paper) |
|---|---|
| Subjects: | H Social Sciences > H Social Sciences (General) Q Science > QA Mathematics > QA75 Electronic computers. Computer science |
| Research Area: | Computer Science and Applications |
| Depositing User: | Ms T. Iannizzi |
| Date Deposited: | 25 Jun 2014 08:59 |
| Last Modified: | 25 Jun 2014 08:59 |
| URI: | http://eprints.imtlucca.it/id/eprint/2210 |
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