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information for their target audience (Reese & Shoemaker, 2016). For this research, the fifth level of analysis, social system is excluded from the conceptual framework as it is out of the research scope (i.e. politics, economy and culture of Indonesia).
2.6 The Conceptual Framework
Figure 2 illustrates the conceptual framework of this research that is primarily built from the HOI model, this framework analyzed four levels of HOI namely (1) individual level, (2) routine level, (3) organization level, and (4) social institutions level (Reese & Shoemaker, 2016). In addition, this study integrated other relevant concepts on personal traits and professional experience (Vergeer, 2018; Albæ k et al., 2017), information gathering, processing and distributing (Boukes & Vliegenthart, 2017; Himma-Kadakas, 2017; van der Meer et al., 2016; Karlsson, 2011), fact-checking (Graves, 2016a) editorial policies (Blanco-Castilla, 2018) along with external social institutions related to Palu disaster case. Social system level (fifth level) is not part of this framework as it is out of this study’s scope. The scope of this study is to examine factors that influenced news and fact-check practices (i.e., individual, routine, and organizational) along with the influence(s) from the government (i.e., social institution) while handling disaster fake news.
Since this study is not a cross-country comparison or to specifically look into the influence media received solely based on their geographic location (Ferrucci, 2018) only the first four levels of analyses were examined. Despite that, contextual background of news or fact-check organization operates in was still necessary, thus had been discussed in the previous section (see sec. 2.3).
This conceptual framework was utilized to examine news professionals from both traditional and web-only news media, as well as third-party fact-check professionals on their work practices in dealing with information related to post-Palu disaster fake news. Adopted and modified from HOI model, this framework has four dimensions where each dimension will have
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its own code and subcodes to be analyzed. Lastly, the term “news” will hereby be changed into
“information” in order to have a more neutral expression to represent both news media and third-party fact-checking organizations, however the essence of their practices are still very similar.
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2.6.1 Individual Level
The first dimension is the individual level where news professionals as individuals can influence news content (Reese & Shoemaker, 2016). In this level, the individual level is
Figure 2. The Conceptual Framework
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conceptualized through the codes (1) personal traits and (2) professional experience adopted from Albæ k et al. (2017) and Vergeer (2018) studies. Personal traits refer to the personal beliefs and opinions news and fact-check professionals carry with them (Albæ k et al, 2017), whereas professional experience, is the accumulated experience news and fact-check professionals have in relation to their jobs (Vergeer, 2018).
Personal traits were examined to study how individuals' beliefs and/or opinions on fake news influence their approach to dealing with fake news when at work. On the other hand, based on news and fact-check professionals' professional experience, the researcher would like to study how they dealt with post-Palu disaster fake news. Through different experiences, the researcher will be able to gain insights on how accumulated professional experience in dealing with fake news-related information equipped these professionals when dealing with post-Palu disaster fake news.
2.6.2 Routine Level
The second dimension of this framework is the routine level which is defined as the set of requirements and practices news professionals and even fact-check professionals go through to produce information (Xu & Jin, 2017; Graves, 2016; Reese & Shoemaker, 2016). The routine level is especially important for this study as this research aims to investigate the work process on how news and fact-checking professionals dealt with fake news during Palu disaster.
In this level, there are four codes that will be examined, and they are concepts on the three phases of information production (1) information gathering, (2) information process/production, and (3) information distribution that derived from Karlsson's (2011) study and (4) fact-checking based on Grave's (2016) study. Information gathering, process/production, and distribution are relevant for this study as they are important phases needed to produce information content, and at
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the same time, are routine practices that both news and fact-check professionals go through on a daily basis. In addition, fact-checking was also examined as it has been gaining relevance in the practice of information production (Brandtzaeg et al., 2017). Examination of these four codes will result in understanding the SOP of work practices when dealing with fake news, specifically, during Palu disaster.
First, information gathering was examined by the subcodes (1) source credibility referred as a source being able to be accounted for their claims, (2) timeliness, the ability for both source and news professionals to provide relevant information in a timely manner and (3) source knowledge, defined as a source possessing relevant information on an issue that are adopted from van der Meer et al. (2016) study. These subcodes are relevant especially in the context of fake news in the aftermath of a natural disaster, where people could be anxious for information and felt panic.
Secondly, information process/production will be further examined by two subcodes, and the first subcode is on constructing, which is the practice of ascribing certain values or emphasizing aspects of an issue to create newsworthiness of a content (Boukes & Vliegenthart, 2017). The second subcode is correcting, which refers to the process of revising the information, rewriting, and correcting errors (Himma-Kadakas, 2017). Examinations on the aspects of constructing and correction were employed to find out the routines of writing fake news content and the idea of correcting published content, especially within the context of fake news where little mistakes can lead up to accusations of being "fake" (Wishart, 2017).
Next, information distribution will be understood from the subcodes (1) traditional news media, which is the main media used by traditional news media to distributed information (Parmer et al., 2016), (2) news sites, referring to information distribution through traditional affiliated news
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sites or web-only websites (Huang et al., 2013; Chung et al., 2012), and (3) social media which is the use of social media to deliver information (Lischka, 2018). Through the examination of different methods of distributing information, the researcher would then find out how in the context of Palu's earthquake do news and fact-check professionals utilized different distribution platforms to deal with Palu's fake news.
Lastly, built from Graves' (2016) study on fact-checking, the code fact-checking was further examined through the subcodes which are (1) choosing claims to check, referred as fact-checking suspected information, (2) contacting the speaker, which is to question claims from the source suspected of producing suspicious claims, (3) tracing false claims, defined as tracking down media footprint of suspected claims, (4) referring to experts, which is to seek experts' assistance to verify information, and (5) showing results, which is to communicate findings through information contents produced by news and fact-check professionals.
2.6.3 Organizational Level
Next, this framework also adopted the idea on how news content can be shaped due to influences from upper organizational level management (Reese & Shoemaker, 2016). Based on Vergeer’s (2018) study, organizational level employed the first code, editorial policy to examine how the predisposition of an organization influence information production. Editorial policy is defined as the organizational ideologies that drives how content are produced and presented.
Additionally, organizational culture was also employed as the second code of this level.
Organizational culture refers to the shared beliefs, philosophies, and norm among people within an organization (Idowu, 2017). This includes both news or fact-check professionals and their management in regards to their approach on certain issue, and in this research context, fake news in the event of Palu disaster.
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The purpose of selecting these two codes is to investigate the limitations presented by editorials and even organizational culture. Previous research had shown that certain news practices influenced the way news professionals addressed an issue, including avoidance of certain issues or compulsory demand of official statements (Steele, 2011). Based on these conceptions on the influences on newsroom practices, this study extends its conceptions to the case of fake news and its applications in both news and third-party fact-check media.
2.6.4 Social Institutions Level
Lastly, on social institutions level, the framework examined influences from government and third-party fact-checking organizations to understand how they influenced news content on fake news (Ferrucci, 2018; Xu & Jin, 2017). The government is selected as one of the subcodes due to the nature of Palu case, which is natural disaster, and the government played a crucial role in providing information. Moreover, given the importance of official statement in Indonesian media, it is interesting to examine the influence of government in this study.
Aside from the government, the role and influence of third-party fact-checking organization, especially for news media was also examined. This is because the third-party fact-checking organization also played an active role in debunking post-Palu disaster fake news. With recent rise in third-party fact-checking within information ecology (Haigh et al., 2017), it would be fruitful to study the influence of third-party fact-checking in newsroom practices. Investigation on social institutions provides insights on its influence towards the internal mechanism of new and fact-check professionals. However, these insights also contribute to a more macro understanding of Indonesia’s fake news ecology.
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CHAPTER 3
METHODOLOGY
To understand fake news distribution and combat practices, this study takes upon the case of fake news during a natural disaster in Palu, Indonesia. The prevalence of fake news during the disaster prompted the government to release weekly press releases to debunk fake news, news media published clarification content, and a third-party fact-check organization also provided clarifications (Rahma, 2018; Renaldi, 2018; Riana, 2018). This exploratory study employed a mixed-method approach consisting of web observation and in-depth interview to answer the following research questions:
RQ1: How were the information flows(s) and pattern (s) of fake news-related information mediated by Indonesian media (news media, fact-check media and social media) during Palu earthquake and tsunami?
RQ2: How did news professionals from traditional affiliated and independent news media handled post-Palu disaster fake news through their newsroom practices?
RQ3: What is the current fact-checking system in Indonesia? How did fact-checking organization operate in dealing with fake news and clarify post-Palu disaster fake news?