Date of Award
5-2020
Document Type
Thesis open access
Department
Communication
First Advisor
Aaron A. Delwiche
Second Advisor
Jennifer J. Henderson
Abstract
Solutions to the problem of the spread of disinformation have come from a variety of disciplines. However, little academic research has examined the whether or not the user interface design of social media platforms could affect the spread of disinformation. Drawing from research from the uses and gratifications paradigm and technological affordances, this study examines user behavior on three versions of a researcher-created news sharing social networking service, called "The Hive." Findings were inconclusive about the modifications tested in this study but nevertheless revealed interesting patterns in user behavior. This project, by closely examining the relationship between user interface design and user behavior, sheds new light on the problem of disinformation by arguing that users can be prompted to be more active consumers of news through changes in the interface.
Recommended Citation
Herring, Mary Margaret, "Curbing the Spread of Disinformation Through User Interface Design" (2020). Communication Honors Theses. 19.
https://digitalcommons.trinity.edu/comm_honors/19
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.