Digital Trust and Security Seminar Series: Prof Cristian Vaccari

Join us for an eye-opening seminar exploring how trusted sources like BBC News can influence the spread of both truth and disinformation on personal messaging platforms like WhatsApp. Discover with Prof Cristian Vaccari, Chair of Future Governance, Public Policy, and Technology at the University of Edinburgh, the surprising findings of a large-scale study and learn about the powerful role of source credibility in shaping what we believe and share!

This event invites participants from all disciplines and backgrounds to come together, fostering interdisciplinary connections and discussions.

Talk Title: Source Credibility as a Double-Edged Sword: How Attributing News to a Reputable Journalistic Brand Affects Users’ Misinformation Discernment on Personal Messaging

Disinformation often features reputable sources to boost false information’s credibility, but does this deceptive source misattribution shape how disinformation spreads on personal messaging? In a preregistered between-subjects survey experiment (N=2,580), we showed participants WhatsApp messages containing true or false news statements attributed to either BBC News or no source. Findings suggest attribution to BBC News significantly increased message credibility. Importantly, participants’ responses to false messages attributed to BBC News were statistically indistinguishable from their responses to true messages. On personal messaging, source attribution can boost the spread of accurate news but can also be used deceptively to propagate falsehoods.

Biography: Cristian Vaccari (PhD, IULM University in Milan, 2006) is Chair of Future Governance, Public Policy, and Technology at the University of Edinburgh, where he directs the Masters Degree in Future Governance at the Edinburgh Futures Institute. He studies political communication by elites and citizens in comparative perspective, with a particular focus on digital and social media. He is a member of the Grants Assessment Panel for Politics for the UK Economic and Social Research Council, a former Editor-in-Chief of The International Journal of Press/Politics (2019-24), and a past Chair of the Information Technology & Politics section of the American Political Science Association (2020). He previously served as Director (2021-23) and Co-Director (2019-21) of the Centre for Research in Communication and Culture at Loughborough University. He also served as a Co-Rapporteur for two Committees of Experts of the Council of Europe: on “Freedom of Expression and Digital Technologies” (2020-21) and on “the Integrity of Online Information” (2022-23). Professor Vaccari’s latest book is [global.oup.com] (with Augusto Valeriani, Oxford University Press, 2021), which won the 2022 Best Book Award by the Information Technology & Politics Section of the American Political Science Association. His personal website can be found at www.cristianvaccari.com [cristianvaccari.com].

Photography will take place at this event. If you do not wish to be photographed, please speak to an event organiser upon event registration.

Connect with the Centre for Digital Trust and Society

The Centre for Digital Trust and Society organises the DTS Guest Seminar Series and is a focal point for research across the University of Manchester that explores aspects of trust and security in our digital world. The Centre is part of Digital Futures, a highly interdisciplinary network which operates across the whole range of the University of Manchester's digital research.

About Digital Futures:

Digital Futures is a highly interdisciplinary network that operates across the whole range of the University’s digital research. We aim to present a coherent overview of The University of Manchester's digital research activity to external stakeholders and bring together research communities to explore new research areas and address strategic opportunities.

Connect with us:

X: twitter.com/DigitalUoM

Linkedin: linkedin.com/showcase/digital-futures-at-the-university-of-manchester

Website: digitalfutures.manchester.ac.uk

Newsletter: tinyurl.com/digitalfuturesuom

Host or Publisher Digital Futures