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)
Citation
CHUA, Alton Y. K.; TEE, Cheng-Ying; PANG, Augustine; and LIM, Ee-Peng.
The retransmission of rumor and rumor correction messages on Twitter. (2017). American Behavioral Scientist. 61, (7), 707-723.
Available at: https://ink.library.smu.edu.sg/lkcsb_research/5951
Copyright Owner and License
Authors
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-No Derivative Works 4.0 International License.
Additional URL
https://doi.org/10.1177/0002764217717561
Included in
Business and Corporate Communications Commons, Databases and Information Systems Commons, Social Media Commons