Media Modalities and the Spread of Fake News: Diagnosticity and Involvement Effects

Abstract

The proliferation of fake news about climate change presents a significant challenge to global efforts to address
this urgent environmental issue. While fake news was previously predominantly text-based, it has evolved in recent years to
incorporate more dynamic multimedia formats like pictures, audio, and video, with the potential to significantly influence
users and amplify its spread online. This study investigates how different presentation modalities (text-only, image with text,
and video with text) influence the believability and dissemination of fake news about climate change. An online experiment
was conducted with 456 participants randomly assigned to view fake news posts in one of the three formats. The study
examined the effects of these presentation formats on perceived accuracy and sharing intentions, as well as the mediating
role of content diagnosticity and the moderating role of personal involvement. The experimental outcomes reveal the
following: 1) Video with text significantly enhances perceived accuracy compared to text-only format, while image with text
shows no significant difference; (2) The effect of presentation format on perceived accuracy is mediated by perceived
diagnosticity; (3) Personal involvement moderates these relationships, with highly involved individuals being less influenced
by presentation format; (4) Perceived accuracy positively correlates with sharing intentions across all formats. The study
contributes to our understanding of fake news dissemination by integrating the MAIN model, cognitive theory of multimedia
learning, and elaboration likelihood model. It highlights the role of the "realism heuristic" in processing fake news content
and reveals how perceived diagnosticity influences accuracy judgments. These findings provide valuable insights for
researchers, practitioners, and policymakers working to develop effective strategies for combating fake news and promoting
media literacy in the context of climate change communication. They suggest that media literacy programs should focus on
enhancing critical evaluation skills, particularly for video content. Additionally, increasing personal involvement in climate change issues may lead to a more critical evaluation of information across different modalities.