Students's credibility criteria for evaluating scientific information: The case of climate change on social media

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Abstract

The rise of social media platforms and the subsequent lack of
traditional gatekeeping mechanisms contribute to the multiplied spread
of scientific misinformation. Particularly in these new media spaces,
there is a rising need for science education in fostering a science
media literacy that enables students to evaluate the credibility of
scientific information. A key determinant of a successful credibility
evaluation is the effectiveness of the criteria students apply in this
process. However, research suggests that existing credibility criteria
are often not integrated into students' actual social media evaluation
behavior. This hints to a lack of transferability of the existing
criteria. As a consequence, knowledge about how learners evaluate
credibility in social media is a first step in closing this gap. In the
present study, we report results from six focus groups with 21
10th-grade students (M = 15 years, 57% female, 38% male, 5% nonbinary)
about their usage of different credibility criteria in the case of
social media posts about climate change. The data were analyzed through
qualitative content analysis and as a first step assigned to
established credibility dimensions of content (what?) and
source-related criteria (who?). Additionally, given the complexity of
social media, we also added a composition-based category (how?). In a
second analysis step, we adapted our subcategories to the recently
proposed credibility heuristic by Osborne and Pimentel. The findings
suggest that students generally take criteria from all three heuristic
credibility dimensions into account and combine different criteria when
evaluating the credibility of scientific information in social media.
Based on the application of the credibility criteria to the heuristic,
implications for the development of teaching materials for fostering
science media literacy are discussed.

https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/sce.21855?af=R
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