For communication professionals, misinformation and disinformation are serious threats that can have long-lasting implications. Unfortunately, there is a critical gap in applying an ethical framework and a lack of training resources for handling false information. A team of scholars from the University of Alabama is conducting a study to identify ethical standards that will help practitioners prepare and react… More
The phrase “misinformation on social media,” unfortunately, has become quite common and outright mundane in modern times.
As we all know, with unlimited posts and threads running in all directions simultaneously, there are limitless possibilities for all the directions, angles, and paths that the countless lines of communication can take. And of course, once all that occurs, it… More
By Linwan Wu, University of South Carolina and Holly Overton, Penn State University
Are native advertisements effective for communicating a company’s corporate social responsibility efforts as a crisis response strategy? Results from a series of Page Center-funded studies we conducted about native CSR advertising suggest that it depends on whether or not individuals are able to recognize the… More
By Fan Yang, University at Albany, SUNY, and Holly Overton, University of South Carolina
Why do people share misinformation, especially when they know it may not be true? How do companies’ efforts to combat misinformation impact individuals’ trust in media sources?
We conducted a series of studies about the psychology behind the spread of misinformation about environmental… More
Editor's Note: Gene Foreman has been an ethical force in journalism for about half a century. He was honored with a Larry Foster Award at the Page Center Awards in February. In this article, he shares his journey to becoming a beacon of integrity, how it all began and why teaching was a natural fit after he left the… More
Fake news has become a real concern for corporations. When fake news about a company goes viral, it is recommended that the company actively engages in refuting the fabricated information to defend its reputation.
To help prepare rapid and effective corporate responses to fake news, a recent study, “Listening… More