Berger, Lara Marie 
ORCID: 0000-0002-0246-2255, Kerkhof, Anna, Mindl, Felix and Münster, Johannes ORCID: 0000-0001-9895-2672
(2025).
Debunking “fake news” on social media: Immediate and short-term effects of fact-checking and media literacy interventions.
Journal of Public Economics, 245.
pp. 1-24.
Elsevier.
ISSN 0047-2727
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Abstract
[Artikel-Nr.: 105345] We conduct a randomized survey experiment to compare the immediate and short-term effects of fact-checking to a brief media literacy intervention. We show that fact-checking primarily affects the specific fake news it directly addresses, whereas media literacy helps to distinguish between false and correct information more generally, both immediately and around two weeks after the intervention. A plausible mechanism is that media literacy enables participants to critically evaluate social media postings, while fact-checking fails to enhance their skills as much. Our results promote media literacy as an effective tool to fight fake news, that is cheap, scalable, and easy-to-implement.
| Item Type: | Article |
| Creators: | Creators Email ORCID ORCID Put Code Kerkhof, Anna UNSPECIFIED UNSPECIFIED UNSPECIFIED Mindl, Felix UNSPECIFIED UNSPECIFIED UNSPECIFIED |
| URN: | urn:nbn:de:hbz:38-802434 |
| Identification Number: | 10.1016/j.jpubeco.2025.105345 |
| Journal or Publication Title: | Journal of Public Economics |
| Volume: | 245 |
| Page Range: | pp. 1-24 |
| Number of Pages: | 24 |
| Date: | May 2025 |
| Publisher: | Elsevier |
| ISSN: | 0047-2727 |
| Language: | English |
| Faculty: | Faculty of Management, Economy and Social Sciences |
| Divisions: | Weitere Institute, Arbeits- und Forschungsgruppen > Staatswissenschaftliches Seminar |
| Subjects: | Social sciences Economics |
| Uncontrolled Keywords: | Keywords Language Covid ; Environment ; Facebook ; Fact-checking Fake ; news ; Media literacy ; Misinformation ; Nutrition ; Social media ; Supplements ; Survey experiment ; Vaccine English |
| ['eprint_fieldname_oa_funders' not defined]: | Publikationsfonds UzK |
| Refereed: | Yes |
| URI: | http://kups.ub.uni-koeln.de/id/eprint/80243 |
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