News sharing on social media—the act of retweeting, reposting, or recommending news stories to one's network—is a primary mechanism by which misinformation spreads. Understanding what drives news sharing (both of true and false content) reveals whether users prioritize accuracy, social signaling, or political goals.
Key observations
Partisan selectivity: Users share news that aligns with their political ideology and attacks opposing parties, regardless of whether that news is true or false. Osmundsen et al. (2021) show that partisan polarization predicts sharing of both fake and real news, suggesting users apply a partisan lens rather than a truth lens to their sharing decisions.
Concentration effects: A small fraction of users are responsible for the majority of news sharing, particularly fake news. In the 2016 U.S. election, only 1% of panelists on Twitter were responsible for sharing 11% of all fake news links, while mainstream media dominated news exposure across all political groups.
Platform-specific affordances: Social media platforms (Twitter's retweet button, Facebook's share feature, TikTok's algorithm) shape news sharing through ease of sharing, visibility of engagement metrics, and algorithmic amplification of emotionally charged content.
Key papers
- 2021-osmundsen-partisan-polarization-fake-news — Analyzes 2,709,052 tweets from 2,337 US participants; demonstrates that partisan polarization predicts sharing of fake news sources, with strong Republicans 15+ percentage points more likely to share pro-Republican fake news; shows that headline sentiment (negativity toward opposing party) significantly predicts sharing.