New study—finally published, in all its typeset glory, at American Behavioral Scientist!

We developed an affordances-based conceptual framework to distinguish between platforms, and we narrowed news sharing behaviour down to amplification of false and exaggerated news. To our knowledge, this is the first study to show empirically a connection between Instagram use and the amplification of misleading information among ordinary social media users.

A bit of background, which illustrates some of the damaging and often hidden impacts the pandemic is having on academic research, particularly in fast-moving fields such as the one I work in. We submitted the article to American Behavioral Scientist for review in September 2020. Following minor revisions, it was accepted in February 2021. But due to the journal’s policy of holding off publishing individual articles until the entire special issue is ready, together with the pandemic’s impact on the personal circumstances of one of the special issue’s editors, publication was delayed by almost 18 months.

Still, better late than never, and it’s great to see this out, in all its typeset glory, at this venerable interdisciplinary journal.

You can read a brief blog post about the study here and download the open access, free-of-charge, published version at the journal website here.