Publication Type

Journal Article

Version

acceptedVersion

Publication Date

6-2017

Abstract

This article seeks to examine the relationships among source credibility, message plausibility, message type (rumor or rumor correction) and retransmission of tweets in a rumoring situation. From a total of 5,885 tweets related to the rumored death of the founding father of Singapore Lee Kuan Yew, 357 original tweets without an “RT” prefix were selected and analyzed using negative binomial regression analysis. The results show that source credibility and message plausibility are correlated with retransmission. Also, rumor correction tweets are retweeted more than rumor tweets. Moreover, message type moderates the relationship between source credibility and retransmission as well as that between message plausibility and retransmission. By highlighting some implications for theory and practice, this article concludes with some limitations and suggestions for further research.

Keywords

Rumor, Rumor correction, Retransmission, Twitter, Retweetability

Discipline

Business and Corporate Communications | Databases and Information Systems | Social Media

Research Areas

Corporate Communication; Data Science and Engineering

Publication

American Behavioral Scientist

Volume

61

Issue

7

First Page

707

Last Page

723

ISSN

0002-7642

Identifier

10.1177/0002764217717561

Publisher

SAGE Publications (UK and US)

Copyright Owner and License

Authors

Additional URL

https://doi.org/10.1177/0002764217717561

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