- To understand how the presence of fact-checking flags can affect peoples' ability to identify misinformation
- To identify which types of flags are more effective: those from fact-checkers or those from individual readers through crowdsourcing
- Lastly, to understand if, after seeing the flags, peoples' assessment of fake news changes due to critical thinking or due to their blind faith in the flags

Goal of "Flagging fake news on social media: An experimental study of media consumers' identification of fake news"

- Research on the long-term effects of fact-checking flags is needed because of the possibility that repeated exposure to the flags might further numb consumers of media

Areas of Further Research Associated with Fact-Checking Flags

Software used to flag fake news, which is often detected either by independent fact-checkers or crowdsourcing algorithms because of the fact the manually flagging fake news can be difficult.

Johns Hopkins University

The process of determining the accuracy of information. Often performed and published by professional fact checkers such as Politifact or Snopes.

Fact Checking

Dongfang Gaozhao, Flagging fake news on social media: An experimental study of media consumers' identification of fake news, Government Information Quarterly, Volume 38, Issue 3, 2021, 101591, ISSN 0740-624X,
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.giq.2021.101591.

Flagging fake news on social media: An experimental study of media consumers' identification of fake news

Fact Checking Flags

Criteria for Evaluating the Truth of a Message

The Schema-plus-tag model relates to fact checking because it posits the idea that people may forget the link between the negation of the fact check and the false claim it is debunking.

Schema-plus-tag Model and Fact Checking

Overall, fact-checking has been found to positively influence beliefs. Although, there are differences in effectiveness depending on the type of fact-checking message, pre-existing beliefs, and inclusion of visual elements. 

Effectiveness of Fact-Checking

Individuals often only share fact-checks online when they align with their political views or other pre-existing beliefs.

The Partisanship of Sharing Fact-Checks

Fact-checking is not scalable as it requires substantial time and effort, warnings are only put on blantly false news, and it often fails to reach the intended audience. 

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