The Retransmission of Rumor and Rumor Correction Messages on Twitter. (June 2017)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Chua, Alton Y. K; Tee, Cheng-Ying; Pang, Augustine; Lim, Ee-Peng
• Other Names: Gruzd Anatoliy guest-editor.; Jacobson Jenna guest-editor.; Wellman Barry guest-editor.; Mai Philip H. guest-editor.
• Is Part Of: American behavioral scientist. Volume 61:Number 7(2017)
• Page Start: 707
• Page End: 723
• Publication Date: 2017-06
• Subjects: rumor -- rumor correction -- retransmission -- Twitter -- retweetability; Social sciences -- Periodicals; Political science -- Periodicals; United States -- Social conditions -- Periodicals; United States -- Politics and government -- Periodicals; 300
• DOI: 10.1177/0002764217717561
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 0002-7642

Abstract

This article seeks to examine the relationships among source credibility, message plausibility, message type (rumor or rumor correction) and retransmission of tweets in a rumoring situation. From a total of 5, 885 tweets related to the rumored death of the founding father of Singapore Lee Kuan Yew, 357 original tweets without an "RT" prefix were selected and analyzed using negative binomial regression analysis. The results show that source credibility and message plausibility are correlated with retransmission. Also, rumor correction tweets are retweeted more than rumor tweets. Moreover, message type moderates the relationship between source credibility and retransmission as well as that between message plausibility and retransmission. By highlighting some implications for theory and practice, this article concludes with some limitations and suggestions for further research.