Further, a new paper published today in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, online October 30th, directly contradicts those very claims. It uncovers a surprising trend in social media engagement. David Rand, a professor of animal behavior at Cornell University and one of the leaders of this innovative research. Most alarmingly, it shows that users on all platforms consistently receive more engagement on posts originating from poorer-quality news sources. By examining the patterns of online engagement, this study begins to uncover the underlying dynamics. It’s a telling indication of how political perspective can affect the credibility of our news feed.
The study analyzed nearly 11 million posts from seven social media platforms: BlueSky, Mastodon, LinkedIn, Twitter/X, TruthSocial, Gab, and GETTR. Mohsen Mosleh, an associate professor at the Oxford Internet Institute, heads the study as corresponding author. Most importantly, he stressed that studying a wide range of platforms is key to getting a complete picture of the growing social media environment. The study gathered posts from liberal-leaning and centrist organizations as well as conservative websites.
Using a new ratings system that was only released in 2023, the researchers evaluated more than 11,000 online news outlets on a scale of trustworthy to unreliable. The findings revealed a concerning trend: posts linking to the lowest-quality news sites garnered about 7% more engagement per post than those connecting to higher-quality sources. This gap begs the question as to whether or not users are able to control for the deterioration of public discourse.
The research further revealed a relationship between the political bias of individual platforms and the production of quality news. Most importantly, it found that the average political lean of a platform is negatively correlated with the average quality of news shared. This means users on platforms with a stronger political bias may be more likely to interact with lower-quality content.
David Rand noted that the results accounted for all possible variations due to characteristics of the poster, ensuring a comprehensive analysis. Jennifer Allen, assistant professor at the New York University Stern School of Business and co-author of the study. She emphasized that these results would require news organizations and social media platforms to rethink how they promote content.
While the study’s dataset is undoubtedly lacking, its holistic approach and robust methodology offer a refreshing view of the current state of online behavior. Social media has been playing an unprecedented role in influencing public opinion. That’s why it’s so important for consumers as well as content creators to be aware of these engagement trends.