The Weekly Misinformation Briefing (September 29, 2020) was written by:
- Hubert Au
- Jonathan Bright
- Philip N. Howard
From the Report’s Summary:
The social media distribution network of all articles from the top fifteen mainstream news outlets reached just below three billion social media users this week, achieving much greater distribution than state-backed and junk news sources. But the average article from state-backed sources reached over 8,000 users, while the average article from mainstream sources reached over 4,500 users and the average junk health article reached over 2,450 users.
- Similarly, aggregate content from mainstream sources gets the largest amount of total user engagement. However, on a per article basis, state-backed news receives over 600 engagements and junk news receives just below 1,400, while average articles from mainstream sources get over 300 engagements.
- The most prominent junk news and state-backed topics, in descending order, include misinformation surrounding the US Supreme Court vacancy following Justice Ginsburg’s death, China’s role on the international stage, and protests and police shootings in the US.
Direct to Full Text Report
5 pages; PDF.
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