自然災害期間的假新聞：印度尼西亞的信息流，新聞實踐和事實核查 - 政大學術集成

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(1)國立政治大學國際傳播英語碩士學位學程 International Master’s Program in International Communication Studies College of Communication National Chengchi University. 碩士論文 Master’s Thesis 政治. 大. 立. ‧ 國. 學. ‧. 自然災害期間的假新聞：印度尼西亞的信息流，新聞實踐和事實核查 Fake News during Natural Disaster: Information Flow, News Practices and Fact-Checking in Indonesia. n. er. io. sit. y. Nat. al. iv. C Febbie Austina Kwanda Student: Un hengchi. Advisor: Trisha Tsui-Chuan Lin, Ph.D.. 中華民國 108 年 09 月 September 2019. DOI: 10.6814/NCCU201901262.

(2) ABSTRACT. Social media has become the digital public sphere for virally disseminating fake news and challenging professional journalism. As one of the largest social media nations, fake news in Indonesia is worsen with low literacy, rapid digital growth, and a politically polarized public (Kaur et al., 2018). This study defines fake news as the intentional and unintentional production and dissemination of false information on social media (Waisbord, 2018; Klein & Wueller, 2017). Examining the case of Palu earthquake and tsunami disaster fake news in Indonesia, this study aims to address fill the research gap of scholarly studies regarding journalistic and fact check practices regarding disaster-related fake news in non-Western contexts. Hierarchy of Influences model (HOI) (Reese & Shoemaker, 2016) was utilized as a theoretic basis to examine individual, routine, organizational, social institutions, and social systems levels of influences on news and fact-check professionals. Employing a mixed-method approach (web observation and interview), this study first analyzed information flows and patterns of three types of post-Palu disaster fake news (i.e., disaster threat, political-infused, and social tragedy). Additionally, web observation identified three types of news organizations: (1) two organizations affiliated with traditional media with different levels (Kompas.com and Medcom.id,), and (2) one web-only, independent news organization (Tempo.co). Next, the researcher used a purposive and snowball sampling to conduct in-depth interviews with seven news professionals in the three news media, in order to investigate contextual influences of different newsrooms. Also, five respondents were selected from the only fact-check organization (Mafindo) and a collaborative fact-checking initiative between Mafindo and 24 online media (CekFakta). The interview data were thematically analyzed with10 codes and 18 sub-codes.. 立. 政治大. ‧. ‧ 國. 學. y. Nat. sit. n. al. er. io. Web observation results showed different types of disaster-related fake news yielded different information flows and patterns. High-risk fake news was carefully handled by Indonesian news media, especially by traditionally-affiliated media, when government’s announcements were prioritized by news media to debunk false information. Whereas low-risk fake news was treated as standardized journalism that news media would do fact-check to verify news truthfulness and clarify factuality. When high-risk fake news contained controversial elements (e.g., politics and religion), complex information flows were developed by waves of debates from polarized publics. However, information flows of low-risk information (e.g., scientific information) were simple, as the clarifications were easily accepted by the publics.. Ch. engchi. i n U. v. Among the HOI dimensions, the interview results showed that factors at the routine and organizational levels shaped respondents’ disaster fake news practices greatly. At the routine level, when dealing with high-risk fake news, respondents from all three media media shared similarities to wait for government’s official statements before publishing relevant news. However, news angle(s) driven by organizational characteristics (ownership and news orientation) were likely to differ across newsrooms, ranging from glossing over the fake news to clarifying and educating the public. At an organizational level, Traditional media affiliated news organizations tended to be cautious when reporting (disaster) fake news with political/sensitive elements or high risks. Meanwhile, independent news media that exhibited a liberal standpoint might express skepticism on the government’s information regarding post-Palu disaster fake news.. DOI: 10.6814/NCCU201901262.

(3) Next, fact-checking has become the new journalistic norm because newsrooms took initiatives in training their reporters to combat fake news. The emergence a third-party fact-checking organization (Mafindo) positioned itself as agenda-less compared with news media. Results showed that fact-checking procedures and publishing formats were handled consistently and coherently by staff at when checking disaster fake news and other misinformation. Additionally, third-party fact-checking not only complements Indonesian journalism, but also serves as a new space for the public to directly report suspicious online information and ask for clarifications. Lastly, the increasing trends for fact-checking and debunking fake news were further enhanced by the CekFakta, he collective effort between the third-party fact-checkers and news media to rebuild media trust and promote public awareness of fake news literacy. Theoretically, this study took a mixed-method approach to extend s the knowledge of disaster fake news in non-political and Western context. Study 1 shows the information flow(s) between controversial and non-controversial fake news and distinct patterns of various stakeholders. While study 2 analyzed the internal working practices of newsrooms and third-party fact-check organization in handling disaster fake news. This study also expands the application of HOI Model in the context of Indonesian disaster fake newsroom practices that identify patterns and models of different types of fake news in three news media types. Next, the present study introduced two types of fact-checking models in Indonesia (third-party independent organization and a collaborative network formed by news media) and examined the practices inside, outside, and inbetween newsrooms. These enhance readers’ understanding of Indonesian unique fake news practices in news media and fact-check media ecology. Practically, this study enables news and fact-check professionals to evaluate their procedures when debunking fake news.. 立. 政治大. ‧. ‧ 國. 學. y. Nat. n. al. er. io. influences, natural disaster. sit. Keywords: fake news, disinformation, misinformation, fact-checking, journalism, hierarchy of. Ch. engchi. i n U. v. DOI: 10.6814/NCCU201901262.

(4) Table of Content CHAPTER 1 ................................................................................................................................... 1 INTRODUCTION .......................................................................................................................... 1 1.1 Research Background ............................................................................................................ 1 1.2 Research Purposes ................................................................................................................. 6 1.3 Research Significance ........................................................................................................... 6 CHAPTER 2 ................................................................................................................................... 8 LITERATURE REVIEW ............................................................................................................... 8 2.1 What is Fake News? .............................................................................................................. 8 2.1.1 Past Studies on Fake News ........................................................................................... 10 2.1.2 Differentiating Rumors and Hoax with Fake News ..................................................... 17. 政治大 2.2 News Media during Crisis ................................................................................................... 20 立 2.2.1 Traditional & Web-Only News media.......................................................................... 20 2.1.3 Fake News during Crisis............................................................................................... 19. ‧ 國. 學. 2.2.2 Journalists during Crisis ............................................................................................... 21 2.2.3 News Practices and Fake News .................................................................................... 22 2.2.4 News Gathering and Ensuring Credibility.................................................................... 23. ‧. 2.2.5 News Processing and Content Quality ......................................................................... 24. y. Nat. 2.2.6 News Distribution on Social Media.............................................................................. 26. sit. 2.3 Journalism and Fake News in Indonesia ............................................................................. 27. al. er. io. 2.3.1 The Law and Journalism............................................................................................... 32. n. 2.3.2 Fake News in Indonesia ................................................................................................ 34. Ch. i n U. v. 2.3.3 Post-Palu Disaster Fake News ...................................................................................... 36. engchi. 2.4 Fact-Checking, Third-party and Fake News Battle ............................................................. 37 2.4.1 Fact-Checking Procedures ............................................................................................ 39 2.4.2 Fact-Checking in Indonesia .......................................................................................... 40 2.5 The Hierarchy of Influences Model .................................................................................... 41 2.5.1 Components of HOI...................................................................................................... 42 2.6 The Conceptual Framework ................................................................................................ 48 2.6.1 Individual Level ............................................................................................................ 50 2.6.2 Routine Level ............................................................................................................... 51 2.6.3 Organizational Level .................................................................................................... 53 2.6.4 Social Institutions Level ............................................................................................... 54 CHAPTER 3 ................................................................................................................................ 56. DOI: 10.6814/NCCU201901262.

(5) METHODOLOGY ....................................................................................................................... 56 3.1 Web Observation ................................................................................................................. 56 3.1.1 Data analysis ................................................................................................................. 63 3. 2 In-depth Interview .............................................................................................................. 63 3.2.1 News Media In-Depth Interview .................................................................................. 64 3.2.2 Fact-Checker In-Depth Interview ................................................................................. 65 3.2.3 Interview Process .......................................................................................................... 66 3.2.4 List of Interview Participants ....................................................................................... 67 3.2.5 Code scheme & Analysis .............................................................................................. 69 CHAPTER 4 ................................................................................................................................. 75 STUDY 1: WEB OBSERVATION .............................................................................................. 75. 政治大 4.1.1 Disaster Threat False Information: The Aftershock ..................................................... 76 立 4.1.2 Political Infused Disaster False Information: FPI (Islamic Defenders Front) Evacuation. 4.1 Web-Observation Results.................................................................................................... 75. ‧ 國. 學. Aid ......................................................................................................................................... 82 4.1.3 Disaster Social Tragedy False information: Baby Adoption ....................................... 88 4.2 Web-Observation Summary ................................................................................................ 92. ‧. CHAPTER 5 ................................................................................................................................. 95. y. Nat. STUDY 2: IN-DEPTH INTERVIEW- NEWS MEDIA ............................................................... 95. sit. 5.1 Individual Level .................................................................................................................. 95. er. io. 5.1.1 Personal trait ................................................................................................................. 96 5.1.2 Professional Value ...................................................................................................... 100. n. al. Ch. i n U. v. 5.2 Routine Level .................................................................................................................... 104. engchi. 5.2.1 Information Gathering ................................................................................................ 104 5.2.2 Information Processing ............................................................................................... 111 5.2.3 Information Distribution ............................................................................................. 115 5.3.4 Fact-Checking ............................................................................................................. 117 5.3 Organizational Level ......................................................................................................... 125 5.3.1 Editorial Policies......................................................................................................... 126 5.3.2 Organizational Culture ............................................................................................... 129 5.4 Social Institutions Level .................................................................................................... 132 5.4.1 Government’s Influence ............................................................................................. 132 CHAPTER 6 ............................................................................................................................... 135 STUDY 2: IN-DEPTH INTERVIEW ........................................................................................ 135 (THIRD-PARTY & COLLABORATIVE FACT-CHECKING) ............................................... 135. DOI: 10.6814/NCCU201901262.

(6) 6.1 Third-Party Fact-Checkers .................................................................................................... 136 6.1.1 Individual Level ............................................................................................................. 136 6.1.2 Routine Level ................................................................................................................. 139 6.1.2.1 Information Gathering ............................................................................................. 139 6.1.2.2 Information Processing and Fact-Checking ............................................................ 146 6.1.2.3 Information Distribution .......................................................................................... 154 6.1.3 Organizational Level ...................................................................................................... 157 6.1.3.1 Editorial Policy ........................................................................................................ 157 6.1.3.2 Organizational Culture ............................................................................................ 158 6.1.4 Social Institutions Level ................................................................................................. 160 6.1.4.1 Government’s Influence .......................................................................................... 160. 政治大 Content Pooling ....................................................................................................................... 162 立 Check and Balance .................................................................................................................. 163. 6.2 Collaborative Fact-Checking Initiative- CekFakta ............................................................... 161. ‧ 國. 學. Training ................................................................................................................................... 165 Building Trust ......................................................................................................................... 166. ‧. 6.2.1 Summary of CekFakta ................................................................................................... 167 CHAPTER 7 ............................................................................................................................... 170. y. Nat. DISCUSSION AND CONCLUSION ........................................................................................ 170. sit. 7.1 Conclusion......................................................................................................................... 170. al. er. io. 7.2 Discussions ........................................................................................................................ 173. v. n. 7.2.1 Information Flow: Political Influence ........................................................................ 174. Ch. i n U. 7.2.2 Information Pattern: Government as Source .............................................................. 179. engchi. 7.2.3. Professional Practices: Traditional Affiliated vs Independent .................................. 181 7.2.4. Fact-Checking Model in Indonesia............................................................................ 184 7.3 Research Contributions ..................................................................................................... 187 7.4 Limitations and Future Study ............................................................................................ 188 References ................................................................................................................................... 190 APPENDIX A – Consent Form .................................................................................................. 206 APPENDIX B- Interview Questions .......................................................................................... 210. DOI: 10.6814/NCCU201901262.

(7) List of Tables Table 1. Summary of Existing Studies ......................................................................................... 12 Table 2. Indonesian Media Groups ............................................................................................... 29 Table 3. Controversial Laws for Indonesian Journalism (AJI, 2018) ........................................... 33 Table 4. News Organizations Observed........................................................................................ 62 Table 5. List of Interviewees ........................................................................................................ 68 Table 6. Coding Scheme ............................................................................................................... 71. 政治大. Table 7. News Media and Aftershock Fake News ........................................................................ 80. 立. Table 8. News Media and FPI Case .............................................................................................. 86. ‧ 國. 學. Table 9. News Media and Baby Adoption .................................................................................... 90. ‧. List of Figures. sit. y. Nat. Figure 1. The Hierarchy of Influences Model (Saldaña & Mourão, 2018) .................................. 43. io. al. er. Figure 2. The Conceptual Framework .......................................................................................... 50. iv n C Figure 4. Google Trend results on fake news h e related i UDisaster (Google Trend, 2018) ..... 59 n g ctohPalu n. Figure 3. Google Trend results on Palu disaster (Google Trend, 2018) ....................................... 58. Figure 5. Information Volume of the Aftershock Case (Google Trend, 2019) ............................ 77 Figure 6. Information Flow for FPI case (Google Trend, 2019) .................................................. 83 Figure 7. Information Volume for Baby Adoption Case (Google Trend, 2019) .......................... 89 Figure 8. Model 1: Information Flow of Non-Controversial-Themed Fake News..................... 176 Figure 9. Model 2: Information Flow of Controversial-Themed Fake News ............................. 178. DOI: 10.6814/NCCU201901262.

(8) CHAPTER 1. INTRODUCTION 1.1 Research Background The changes in digital media ecology have altered the way people seek and consume information (Bakir & McStay, 2018). For many people, the internet has become their main source for news, specifically social media that allows people to receive news in timely and less expensive. 治政 manners, along with the ease to disseminate news content to 大their networks (Shu, Sliva, Wang, 立 Tang & Liu, 2017). Traditional media under gatekeeping mechanisms tend to obey strict ‧ 國. 學. regulations (Austin & Jin, 2016; van der Meer, Verhoeven, Beentjes & Vliegenthart, 2016), while. ‧. online media have light-touched content regulation and licensing. The increasing popularity of social media that generates myriad of unfiltered user-generated content has not only empowered. y. Nat. and disseminating false information easily and rapidly.. n. al. Ch. er. io. sit. ordinary users to voice out in the online public sphere but also developed the hotbed for creating. i n U. v. Dubbed as the "word of the year" by an Australian dictionary in 2016 (Jankowski, 2018),. engchi. fake news has been the buzzword in recent years, because of its surge and huge impacts on society and politics. The term, fake news, acquired its prominence and attention after the 2016 United States Presidential election (Gelfert, 2018). In general, fake news is understood as the intentional production and dissemination of false information in order to deceive others (Klein & Wueller, 2017). Several studies even pointed out that fake news can mimic the form of news (Nelson & Taneja, 2018; Waisbord, 2018). Despite that, the term fake news does not necessarily refer to news. 1. DOI: 10.6814/NCCU201901262.

(9) media itself, but towards false information produced by non-media personnel (Bârgăoanu & Radu, 2018). Fake news is considered as a form of information disorder, and to further grasp this concept, disinformation and misinformation are utilized for further explanation. In the context of information disorder, disinformation refers to the intentional creation and dissemination of false information, while misinformation refers to the unintentional or unknowingly spread of false information (Lima Quintanilha, Silva & Lapa, 2019). In response to the term fake news, both dis-. 治政大but the news media also received The public is not the only entity affected by fake news, 立. and misinformation elaborates the conception of how false information is created and disseminated.. its impacts. For example, the decrease of the public's trust towards news media and the increasing. ‧ 國. 學. likelihood of being labeled as "fake news" when journalistic errors occurred (Pangrazio, 2018;. ‧. Wishart, 2017). Simultaneously, fact-checking had started to emerge as a means to address fake news. Fact-checking has been an inherent characteristic of journalism, but with tight deadlines and. y. Nat. er. io. sit. working pressures, journalists oftentimes skip through fact-checking, allowing fake news to slip through their radar (Beach, 2019). Thus, third-party fact-checking organizations have emerged in. n. al. Ch. i n U. v. recent years, taking up the job of fact-checking, and positioning themselves as neutral and. engchi. impartial as compared to agenda-based news media (Myers, 2014). With the proliferation of fake news globally, Indonesia as one of the largest social media nations are struggling with fake news (Nguyen, 2017). Indonesia currently has more than 50% of people with internet access but its citizens are still prone to fake news. As there are still many Indonesians living in rural or under-developed areas who are less savvy in using the internet doubled with low digital literacy makes them susceptible to fake news (Renaldi, 2018; Walden, 2018). Commonly heard in Indonesia, fake news is referred to as "hoax", but its contextual 2. DOI: 10.6814/NCCU201901262.

(10) meaning refers to both dis- and misinformation, and even politically-related black campaigns (Kaur et al., 2018; Handley, 2017). Although fake news can have detrimental effects on political activities, fake news also takes place in other contexts, including natural disasters, such as the disaster that struck Palu, a city in Indonesia, on September 28, 2018, killing thousands of people. After Palu was struck with an earthquake followed by a tsunami, fake news started to emerge. The fake news includes false information related to aftershocks and even humanitarian aids (Riana, 2018; Walden, 2018).. 治政大 & Lambs, 2018). Moreover, the conference to debunk several post-Palu disaster fake news (Lyons 立. Within several days after the disaster, the Ministry of Communication and Information held a press. police had also arrested eight people responsible for creating and spreading fake news on Facebook. ‧ 國. 學. (Purtill, 2018). News media reported on the fake news and even posted it on social media as shown. ‧. from preliminary observation. Results have also shown that the only third-party fact-check organization in the country, "Mafindo" also took part in debunking the fake news.. y. Nat. er. io. sit. As this research investigated fake news in the aftermath of a natural disaster, taking upon previous literature on fake news, and Indonesia's version of fake news, this study consolidated the. n. al. Ch. i n U. v. definition of fake news. In this study, fake news is referred to as the production and dissemination. engchi. both intentionally and unintentionally by non-media personnel on social media. This study takes upon the case of fake news in the context of a natural disaster in Indonesia. Recent scholarships about fake news focused on conceptualizing what is meant by fake news (Gelfert, 2018; Tandoc Jr. et al., 2018; Waisbord, 2018). Some other scholars attempted to detect fake news (Shu et al., 2018) and explored how traditional media and social networking sites (SNS) presented fake news (Al-Rawi, 2018). An overarching finding from existing literature showed that much research focuses on Wester and political contexts (Lima Quintanilha, Silva & Lapa, 2019; 3. DOI: 10.6814/NCCU201901262.

(11) Ross & Rivers, 2018; Allcott & Gentzkow, 2017). Discussions on fake news' negative impacts include the disruptions of election results, engaging in violence, and even loss of trust on news media (Pangrazio, 2018; Allcott & Gentzkow, 2017; McGonagle, 2017). Likewise, other discussions also focused on fake news from the public's perspectives or their trust in news media. Based on the existing literature, there are several research gaps. First, there is a lack of fake news research in non-Western contexts, especially in Indonesia, a country that is not often studied. Secondly, most studies emphasized political contexts, resulting in more research needed to address. 治政 about newsroom practices when handling fake news. Lastly,大 there is still room for exploration of 立 fake news in other contexts. Third, to the best of the researcher's knowledge, there is little research. third-party fact-check organizations, especially outside the context of politics.. ‧ 國. 學. To address these research gaps, this study examined the information flow and pattern, news. ‧. and fact-checking practices of fake news in Indonesia during a natural disaster. In order to conduct this study, a mixed approach to web observation and in-depth interviews were conducted. Web. y. Nat. er. io. sit. observation focused on three different fake news cases, (1) scientific-related fake news, (2) negative societal impact fake news, and (3) politically related fake news. Findings from web. n. al. Ch. i n U. v. observation provided overall insights on fake news ecology in Indonesia, and also triangulates findings from in-depth interviews.. engchi. Similarly, in-depth interview was employed to interview news and third-party fact-check professionals. News professional respondents were selected from three news media organizations, namely (1) Kompas.com, (2) Medcom.id, and (3) Tempo.co due to their activities in handling postPalu disaster fake news, as found from preliminary observation. Furthermore, these three news organizations also have different backgrounds (i.e. traditional media affiliated and independent news media), highlighting certain differences in their news practices. 4. DOI: 10.6814/NCCU201901262.

(12) Respondents from Mafindo, as the sole third-party fact-checking organization in Indonesia, were also interviewed to understand their fact-checking practices. As fact-checking is a relatively new practice in Indonesia, this study also investigated a collaborative fact-checking initiative between Mafindo and 24 Indonesian online news media, known as CekFakta. This was conducted in response to newsrooms' efforts in combating fake news and to provide further insights on factchecking practices in Indonesia. The current study adopts the Hierarchy of Influences model introduced by Reese and. 治政大 There are five levels of HOI, receive and in return, affects the way news content is produced. 立 Shoemaker (2016). HOI model exhibits the internal and external influences news professionals. divided into internal and external influences. Internal influences encompass (1) individual, (2). ‧ 國. 學. routine, and (3) organizational level. On the other hand, the external influences encompass (4). ‧. social institutions and (5) social system level. This study's conceptual model is heavily based on the first four levels of HOI, as a social system (e.g. culture, economy, and politics) is out of the. y. Nat. able to contribute to some insights for the social system level.. n. al. Ch. er. io. sit. research's scope. However, existing literature reviews, web observation, and interview results were. i n U. v. This study selected the case of Palu disaster due to several reasons. First, as political fake. engchi. news dominates Indonesia (Mafindo, 2018), an investigation on non-political fake news. An interesting dimension of this case is the fact that certain political elements were present in postPalu disaster fake news, making it an interesting case. Secondly, existing literature had stated that journalism in Indonesia tends to be cautious when covering sensitive issues (e.g. politics and religion), Thus, when combined with a highly polarized public (Mokhtar, 2019), this study investigated that news practices when certain sensitive elements were included in a natural disaster fake news. 5. DOI: 10.6814/NCCU201901262.

(13) Indonesia is selected as the research locale for this study due to its digital ecology. Indonesia is known as one of the nations with the fastest growth of internet use, with 50% of the population having access to the internet and 49% having social media accounts (We are Social & Hootsuite, 2018). Along with the growth of internet users in Indonesia, social media, especially Facebook, tops the chart as the most used social media platform by Indonesians and placing third worldwide by October 2018 (Statista, 2018). Despite that, there are still problems related to low digital literacy, diminishing trust in news media, and exposure and (unknowingly) dissemination of fake news on. 治政大 more fake news and making it worthy to be studied. 立. social media (Eka, 2018; Walden, 2018). Therefore, these reasons make the country suffer from. 1.2 Research Purposes. ‧ 國. 學. The purpose of this study is to explore the information flow, news and fact-checking. ‧. practices in a less-studied context and country, namely, natural disaster and Indonesia. Web observation as the first part of this study zooms into three fake news cases to draw out important. y. Nat. er. io. sit. insights to understand information of fake news during natural disaster. Findings resulted into two types of information flow models, with each being unrelated and related to political elements. The. n. al. Ch. i n U. v. second part of this study investigates the practices of news and fact-check professionals, with the. engchi. purpose to find out how non-political fake news were addressed within the circles of their working environment. Lastly, the collaborative fact-checking initiative project was also examined to complete findings on news and fact-checking practices in Indonesia. 1.3 Research Significance In response to existing research about fake news, this study has several theoretical significances. First, this study fills in the gaps in contributing to studies on non-political and Western fake news. Secondly, this study also enriches the knowledge of fake news ecology and 6. DOI: 10.6814/NCCU201901262.

(14) both news and fact-checking practices. Thus, this study could expand literature about journalism and fact-checking in the age of fake news, specifically in terms of its internal mechanisms. Furthermore, the present study also enriches the application of the HOI model, expanding it the context of fake news and understanding influences that fosters or impedes fake news debunking. Simultaneously, fake news can be a challenge for industry experts as many Indonesians are inclined to believe in information found on social media. In addition, fake news in the context of fake news could also spur panic and chaos within society. Therefore, this study could provide. 治政大 fake news ecology in Indonesia the government could also benefit from this study to understand 立. insights and allow news and fact-check professionals to evaluate their working procedures. Lastly,. and consider changes to further support media and fact-check professionals in debunking fake. ‧. ‧ 國. 學. io. sit. y. Nat. n. al. er. news.. Ch. engchi. i n U. v. 7. DOI: 10.6814/NCCU201901262.

(15) CHAPTER 2. LITERATURE REVIEW In Chapter 2, past literatures will be discussed in order to build the foundation to understand fake news and its relations with both news media and third-party fact-check. Section 2.1 begins with explaining how fake news is defined, its differences with other types of false information, and current fake news situation in Indonesia. Section 2.2 discusses on different media roles during. 治政 Additionally, this section also discusses journalism and fake 大news, different processes of news 立 production in relations to maintaining quality, accuracy and newsworthiness and lastly, discusses crisis especially how online platforms can facilitate both spread and control of fake news.. ‧ 國. 學. the role of fact-checking. Next, section 2.3 gives more detailed information in regards to media. ‧. landscape in Indonesia, current fake news situation in the country and the case of fake news during Palu disaster. Section 2.4 examines components of Hierarchy of Influences model (HOI) and lastly,. y. Nat. n. al. er. io. 2.1 What is Fake News?. sit. section 2.5 entails information on the proposed conceptual framework.. Ch. i n U. v. Fake news is a broad term coined to refer to information that is not factual. It has several. engchi. dimensions and layers to it (Lima Quintanilha et al., 2019). The term has been a recent uproar phenomenon that brings challenges to define what exactly fake news is due to the term casually and flexibly used (Gelfert, 2018; Waisbord, 2018; McGonagle, 2017). It has been used in recent years to label everything that is considered as questionable or untrue, making them term open to various interpretations. Originally, fake news is considered as a form of satire that parodies real news events (Klein & Wueller, 2017). It was until the 2016 US Presidential Election when President Trump conveyed his dissatisfaction towards certain media news coverage by labeling 8. DOI: 10.6814/NCCU201901262.

(16) them as “fake news,” that the term became a buzzword with prominence, which also prompted people to be concerned about the severity of this issue (Bârgăoanu & Radu, 2018; Pangrazio, 2018). However, the scope of fake news is not solely limited to political affairs but spans throughout other social aspects of society. For example, the 2017 London terror attack demonstrated that fake news was a challenging issue for journalistic practices (Brummette, DiStaso, Vafeiadis & Messner, 2018). According to Klein and Wueller (2017) and McGonagle (2017), fake news is the. 治政大 to mislead and questionable. further highlight two major cores of fake news, namely the intention 立 intentional dissemination of fabricated online information. Gelfert (2018) and Shu et al. (2017). Other scholars also shared these agreements by defining fake news as online information to. ‧ 國. 學. mislead its readers (Bakir & McStay, 2018; Allcott & Gentzkow, 2017). Other definitions on fake. ‧. news include framing it as articles that are intentionally false to mislead readers, often mimicking the looks of real news stories or coverage (Nelson & Taneja, 2018; Waisbord, 2018; Allcott &. io. sit. y. Nat. Gentzkow, 2017).. n. al. er. Bârgăoanu and Radu (2018) commented that the term “news” in fake news may confuse. Ch. i n U. v. people with the concept of news media. The term may give the impression that fake news is derived. engchi. from media or professional institutions (Brummette et al., 2018). Thus, it is important to address that fake news does not necessarily derive from news media, but from both news and usergenerated information. Several studies have coined the term fake news differently, such as Finneman and Thomas (2018), in which the definition of fake news refers to false information produced by non-media personnel for the purpose of deceiving the mass. This means fake news can originate from common and non-media people. Mirroring this concept, Waisbord (2018) stated that fake news phenomenon often happened outside the circle of 9. DOI: 10.6814/NCCU201901262.

(17) traditional journalism, while Bârgăoanu and Radu (2018) stated that the idea of fake news refers to information that cannot be categorized under traditional news, such as information with no adequate context, opinions presented as facts, or even visual contents such as videos or photos. Vosoughi, Roy and Aral (2018) who studied the dissemination of true and false news information on Twitter did not define news as information from institutional sources, but rather as false information distributed and found on tweets. These previous studies underline the notion that fake news means false information produced to mislead that goes beyond information produced by. 治政大 examines previous studies on online false information to serve certain motives. The next section 立 news media professionals. In general, fake news is understood as the intention to create and spread. fake news.. ‧ 國. 學. 2.1.1 Past Studies on Fake News. ‧. Several studies have examined fake news, ranging from its conceptualization, defining it. sit. y. Nat. to examining fake news during 2016 US Presidential Election. According to Tandoc et al. (2018),. io. er. fake news has been an existence for some time, but with new meanings attached to it along with bearing political weights after 2016 US Presidential Election, it is interesting to look how. n. al. Ch. i n U. v. researchers in recent years framed fake news. Through EBSCOhost database search, the researcher. engchi. used relevant keywords such as “fake news” and “false news” and filtered search results on completed communication and mass media sections. Next, the researcher filtered search results to articles published in 2016 forwards. This is because the 2016 US Presidential election was used as the benchmark for this study. After the results came in, the researcher manually selected research articles through several criteria. Articles that are non-academic, non-English and not related to journalism (e.g. marketing, advertising) were excluded. The researcher then read the abstracts and selected research articles that are related to examination of fake news as a term or phenomenon, 10. DOI: 10.6814/NCCU201901262.

(18) along with articles pertaining to news media, fact-checking, and the public as these concepts are highly relevant to the context of this study. Examinations particularly involved how fake news were defined. A total of 19 articles were selected and Table 1 summarizes these studies, arranged based on their methodologies and publication year.. 立. 政治大. ‧. ‧ 國. 學. n. er. io. sit. y. Nat. al. Ch. engchi. i n U. v. 11. DOI: 10.6814/NCCU201901262.

(19) Table 1. Summary of Existing Studies. Fake news and its impact on trust in the news. Using the Portuguese case to establish lines of differentiation / Communication and Society. 2019. Key Results . Portugal.   . 立. What’s New About “Fake News”? Critical Digital Literacies in an Era if Fake News, PostTruth and Clickbait/ Páginas de Educación. 2018. ●. N/A. ●. ●. N/A. 2018. 2018. Fake news is a challenge due to decrease in media and journalists’ trust. Digital literacy is important to combat fake news. Infrastructures of digital platforms enable creation and dissemination of disinformation.. er. al. n. Is it Really Fake? - Towards an Understanding of Fake News in Social Media Communication / Lecture Notes in Computer Science. io. Information Disorder in Asia/ Journalism and Media Studies Centre The University of Hong Kong. ● ●. Defined fake news as deliberate distribution of misleading information. Public figures used fake news as a weapon to decrease reputation of journalists or media.. ‧. 2017. 學. ‘‘Fake news’’: False fears or Real concerns? / Netherlands Quarterly of Human Rights. Any news that is non-factual, misleading or unverifiable, and has been received and read by at least a person. Investigated impacts of fake news on trust in news Trust in media is higher for those who used traditional media as main source for information. Low public polarization is one of the main reasons why trust in media is higher. 政治大. Nat. Literature Review. Research site. y. Year. sit. Article title/ Journal. ‧ 國. Quantitative Analysis (Based on secondary data survey). Research method/s. India, Indonesia, Japan, Philippines, Singapore, South Korea, Taiwan, and Vietnam. Ch. engchi. Each i v country has its own definition and challenges of “fake news”. n U ● ● ● . N/A. . In Indonesia, fake news is both misinformation and disinformation. Hoax in Indonesia refers to fake news and black campaign. Defined fake news as false information intended to manipulate or deceive. Changes in digital environment made changes in the context, speed and message range of false information.. 12. DOI: 10.6814/NCCU201901262.

(20) Defining “Fake News” /Digital Journalism. 2018. Singapore. ● ●. There are seven typologies of fake news. Fake news as false information that mimics the looks of news’ articles, websites and photos.. Truth is What Happens to News On journalism, fake news, and post-truth/ Journalism Studies. 2018. N/A. ● ●. Fake news is not related to mainstream media. Online media allows the spread of false information to become quicker and at a larger scale.. A family of falsehoods Deception, media hoaxes and fake news / Newspaper Research Journal. 2018. N/A. 2018. ● ● ● ●. N/A. ●. Fake news is not something new in journalism. ● A series of events (e.g. bots, filter bubbles, false narratives,. al. er. conspiracy theories, etc.) influenced distortion of information. n 2018. y. US. sit. 2018. io. Qualitative Analysis (Comparative Analysis). ●. Disinformation as intentional creation of false information for political purposes Decline of trust in institutions drove people to sought information from alternative media. ‧. Nat. Fake News as a Critical Incident in Journalism/ Journalism Practices. Fake news is produced by non-media professionals. Actor and intention distinguish fake news from other forms of false information. Creators of fake news never correct the audience nor their identities.. 學. ‧ 國. 立. The disinformation order: Disruptive communication and the decline of democratic institutions / European Journal of Communication Not Your Grandpa's Hoax: A Comparative History of Fake News / American Journalism. 政治大. Ch. i v how newspapers in the US made sense of fake Examined n U news. ●. US. engchi. ● ● ●. Fake news poses a challenge for journalism. US newspapers blamed current political situations for surge on fake news. Fake news is conceptualized based on intention and facticity.. 13. DOI: 10.6814/NCCU201901262.

(21) ●. ● ●. 2019. ●. Romania. ●. al. n. Survey. ● ●. ●. io. Fake News or Disinformation 2.0? Some Insights into Romanians’ Digital Behaviour / Romanian Journal of European Affair. 政治大. US and Britain. Nat. Fake News and the ThirdPerson Effect: They are More Influenced than Me and You / Journal of Media Research. 2018. Defined fake news as deliberate dissemination of online false information. Fake news can also mimic to look like a news to mislead. The term “fake news” became prevalent in social media and often used as weapons in politics.. Ch. engchi. Romania. Fake news is heavily tied to misinformation and disinformation. Examined how mainstream news media and SNS presented fake news. Mainstream news media viewed fake news as a result of SNS’ minimal gatekeeping. SNS presented fake news based on networked gatekeeping.. y. 2018. 立. ●. Infers fake news as containing intentionality, hoax, and deceiving aspects making it different from other human errors. Gender and fake news exposure frequency are the most significant variables in determining third person effects.. sit. Gatekeeping Fake News Discourses on Mainstream Media Versus Social Media / Social Science Computer Review. US. Fake news as news that is not completely truthful and misleading. Misinformation and disinformation prevail in this digital era. Trump’s tweet discourse revealed that accusations toward fake news were used to conceal Trump’s own spread of misand disinformation.. er. 2018. ● ●. ‧ 國. Corpus Analysis Content Analysis. Read All About It: The Politicization of “Fake News” on Twitter / Journalism & Mass Communication Quarterly. ●. US. ‧. Computational Method. 2018. 學. Discursive Deflection: Accusation of “Fake News” and the Spread of Mis- and Disinformation in the Tweets of President Trump / Social Media + Society. i n U ● ● ●. v. Refers fake news as digital disinformation. Romanians have difficulties in coping up with fake news phenomenon. Media is evaluated more positively compared to political or governmental institution. 14. DOI: 10.6814/NCCU201901262.

(22) Social Media and Fake News in the2016 Election / Journal of Economic Perspectives. 2017. ●. US. 立 2018. Fake news is a form of satire by highlighting political inconsistencies by parodying the news. Fake news is perceived as true when participants were highly exposed fake news and had low exposure to hard news.. ● ●. Conceptualized fake news as untruthful information. Results suggested that fake news played a pivotal role on election result, including President Trump being elected.. ● ●. Fact-checking used to counterattack peer-to-peer propaganda Fact-checking employed to evaluation news pieces by journalists. 政治大 Ukraine. ‧. io. sit. y. Nat. n. al. er. STOPPING FAKE NEWS The work practices of peer-to-peer counter propaganda / Journalism Studies. ●. Israel. ‧ 國. Content analysis and survey. 2014. 學. Interview. When Fake News Becomes Real: Combined Exposure to Multiple News Sources and Political Attitudes of Inefficacy, Alienation, and Cynicism / Communication Research. Ch. engchi. i n U. v. 15. DOI: 10.6814/NCCU201901262.

(23) Based on these previous studies, there are several highlights related to the concept of fake news. First, there has been a shift on how fake news is defined, Balmas (2014) defined fake news as a form of political satire however; on the contrary, after the 2016 US Presidential election, fake news is conceptualized differently. Instead of being conceptualized as political satire, fake news is currently understood as the online publication of false information intentionally produced to mislead or deceive others (Gelfert, 2018; Klein & Wueller, 2017; Shu et al., 2017). As the hallmark of “fake news” era, a number of these studies positioned fake news within. 治政大 election results (Allcott & Results revealed that fake news is powerful enough to influence 立. the context of US politics, specifically the 2016 US Presidential election (Nelson & Tanedja, 2018).. Gentzkow, 2017) and posed a challenge for journalism as fake news steers people away from news. ‧ 國. 學. provided by legitimate news outlets (Tandoc Jr. et al., 2018). This is because the public still have. ‧. difficulties in discerning which news is credible and how to spot fake news. Furthermore, as trust in news media declines, people are more inclined to look for information from alternative media. y. Nat. er. io. sit. (Bennet & Livingstong, 2018).. Secondly, a handful of existing literatures on fake news are conducted in Western contexts,. n. al. Ch. i n U. v. especially the US (Ross & Rivers, 2018; Allcott & Gentzkow, 2017). Furthermore, a lot of studies. engchi. also focused their research in political contexts (Lima Quintanilha et al., 2019; Bennet & Linvingston, 2018; Haigh, Haigh & Kozak, 2017). Main discussions include the use of fake news as weapon for political gains and even fact-checking to keep track of political activities (Beach, 2019). A few studies did conduct studies on other countries, such as Singapore (Tandoc et al., 2018), Israel (Balmas, 2014) and an article studied fake news and politics in Asian countries (Kaur et al., 2018). The lack of fake news studies, especially in non-Western and political contexts. 16. DOI: 10.6814/NCCU201901262.

(24) prompted the idea to conduct a study of fake news based on the event of a natural disaster in Indonesia. Lastly, some of these past studies are users-centric or how social media assists dissemination of fake news, for example by through algorithms (Bârgăoanu & Radu, 2018). Examination of fake news from a user perspective yields understandings on how fake news travel on social media and how users evaluate news (Allcott & Gentzkow, 2017; Shu et al., 2017). There is a research gap in which news practices are less studied. Some studies examined news in the. 治政大et al., 2018). Other study such as on newsroom practices (Lima Quintanihla et al., 2019; Tandoc 立 context of fake news, such as trust on news media or news content itself, but does not emphasize. Al-Rawi (2018) examined the presentation of fake news between mainstream media and social. ‧ 國. 學. networking sites. Currently, there is a limited amount of study that investigates the relations. ‧. between newsroom practice and fake news. Therefore, to fill in this gap, this study aims to investigate how news professionals handled fake news, as discussed on the previous chapter.. sit. y. Nat. io. er. 2.1.2 Differentiating Rumors and Hoax with Fake News. When it comes to information disorder, terms such as rumors and hoax are often mentioned.. n. al. Ch. i n U. v. As fake news can be loosely translated as false information, it can be confusing to discern the. engchi. differences between these three terms. Rumor is defined as stories or opinions with questionable and ambiguous truthfulness that has never been confirmed (Zannettou, Sirivianos, Blackburn & Kourtellis, 2018). They are basically viral online information without any clear verification (Vosoughi, Roy & Aral, 2018; Kwon, Bang, Egnoto & Rao, 2016). The scale of a rumor is dependent on the importance of an issue is for the public; rumors become viral because they were perceived as being relevant for certain group of people and were expressions of fears, anxieties or hopes (Shin, Jian, Driscoll & Bar, 2017; Pang & Ng, 2017). These false statements travel via 17. DOI: 10.6814/NCCU201901262.

(25) grapevine and usually unverified by official sources, leading to potentials of creating misinformed public and at times panic. Rumor can be both disinformation and misinformation, depending on whether false information is deliberately disseminated or unintended (Pang & Ng, 2017). Compared with fake news, rumor emphasizes more on being a phenomenon where a particular claim is questionable, but they can be open to interpretations and not necessarily made to intentionally deceive others. On the other hand, the origin of the term “hoax” can be traced to several centuries ago, dating as early as 1808 and even before, stemming from the phrase “hocus pocus”. Similar to. 治政 rumor and fake news, hoax is a form of deception, however,大 the nature of this form of deception 立 are for amusement of mischievous; a prank used to trick or to fool others (Finneman & Thomas,. ‧ 國. 學. 2018). Burroughs and Burroughs (2011) stated that hoax can take on various forms, ranging from. ‧. pictures, literary, and even utilizing journalistic descriptions that make it seem like they are unlikely to happen. Parallel to pranks such as April’s Fools, hoax is a temporal event, meaning. y. Nat. er. io. sit. that hoax unfolded in stages, starting from a piece of information was disseminated to people realizing that they were fooled and the hoaxers announced to the public that they were fooling. n. al. Ch. i n U. v. around (Secor & Walsh, 2004). Although intensity and seriousness of hoaxes fall in a continuum,. engchi. the basic nature of hoax still lies within the idea of duping and fooling around with others, and oftentimes, for the sake of entertainment. It is the nature of rumor, hoax and fake news that distinguish them from each other. Rumor itself emphasizes more on the phenomenon of questionable statements circulating on social media whereas hoax emphasizes on deceptive forms of information used to fool or prank others, meaning that truth behind a hoax will eventually be known and truth will be revealed after certain period of time (Gelfert, 2018). Meanwhile, fake news is deceptive in nature and intentionally conducted with 18. DOI: 10.6814/NCCU201901262.

(26) ill-motives and not necessarily to prank others. Fake news emphasizes more on information being produced with deliberate intention, and usually, perpetrators of fake news don’t reveal themselves nor the truth, unlike hoaxers (Burroughs & Burroughs, 2011). 2.1.3 Fake News during Crisis Although fake news is commonly known to make its appearance in political context, fake news can also occur in different contexts. Fake news has profound impacts not only within politics, but on democracy, society and economy (Meinert, Mirbabaie, Dungs & Aker, 2018). In this. 政治大 although it can be overwhelming and not knowing which information should be trusted. False 立 information age and heavy load of information people are exposed to various type of information,. information lurks in particular on social media and can be highly problematic in times of crisis.. ‧ 國. 學. Since people have free reigns on social media, most fake news proliferates on these. ‧. platforms. Social media enable ordinary and nonprofessional users to share the news content, even. sit. y. Nat. without significant filtering, fact-checking or professional judgment (Allcott & Gentzkow, 2017).. io. er. Likewise, with the ease of news sharing on social media, it is really simple for fake news to be circulated and exposed to users (Tandoc Jr. et al., 2018). Nelson and Taneja (2018) also added that. n. al. Ch. i n U. v. social media algorithms are capable to push popular posts onto users’ feeds; indicating that scale. engchi. of fake news can be amplified even by algorithms.. Absence of gatekeepers or information filtering can be troublesome due to potentials of publishing and disseminating false information, leading to negative outcomes (Meinert et al., 2018). When fake news is positioned within the context of crisis, chances are people will hastily share information without certain verifications; this can lead to more panic and confusion among the publics. When official channels could not provide the information needed, people sought for other information to fill in the information void and are more prone to be exposed to rumors (Jones, 19. DOI: 10.6814/NCCU201901262.

(27) Thompson, Schetter & Silver, 2017). The following section will discuss different types of news media and how fake news in relations to journalism. 2.2 News Media during Crisis During crisis, there is an urgent need to look for information, especially from news media. Being the first main source people sought for, media outlets have been playing important roles in disseminating information. During these unpredictable events, news media is expected to deliver the much needed information (van der Meer et al., 2016). The public makes sense of what is. 政治大. happening through news media and expects news media can provide them with relevant and accurate information.. 立. 2.2.1 Traditional & Web-Only News media. ‧ 國. 學. As one of the most common media tools used to communicate risks and emergencies,. ‧. traditional media is an important information vehicle to deliver important information to the public. sit. y. Nat. (Parmer et al., 2016). As traditional news media pick up online trends, traditional news media. io. er. started to utilize online platforms, such as by having social media accounts or establishing traditional affiliated news websites (Chung, Nam & Stephanone, 2012). Traditional affiliated news. n. al. Ch. i n U. v. websites reproduced its offline news into online content whereas web-only news can be defined as. engchi. only-online news sites, lacking their offline counterpart, however, they are still produced by professionals (Huang, Yang & Chyi, 2013; Smyrnaios, Marty & Rebillard, 2010). Lastly, through the practice of social media, news organizations are able to promote news content, strengthen relationships with readers and especially, to drive traffics to each respective news website via sharing news' hyperlinks (Ju, Jeong & Chyi, 2014). Through online platforms, people are able to share the news with their networks. News sharing within an online context is defined as the use of social media to post or recommend news 20. DOI: 10.6814/NCCU201901262.

(28) content to a fixed group of people (Kümpel et al., 2015). Aside from traditional news media affiliated websites, as discussed in the above section, there are also news organizations that solely operate on online platforms. Known as web-only news or independent news online, they provide news without having its offline counterpart or newsroom structure of traditional news media, similarly, their scope is also only limited to their websites (Chung et al., 2012). The shift of news consumption to online platforms can be seen as a prominence, especially during the state of emergency. In the context of a disaster crisis, people go to online platforms as. 治政 is currently an issue faced by news professionals. First, trust in大 news media has diminished, leading 立 they are in need of timely information (Cottle, 2014; Austin, Lu & Jin, 2012). Despite that, there. people to seek information from alternative media (Bennett & Livingston, 2018; Pangrazio, 2018).. ‧ 國. 學. One of the consequences would be higher exposure and risks of unverified information by. ‧. professionals. Secondly, in this information age, there is a high expectation of news outlets to publish valid information not just to appease the public's concerns, but to avoid being labeled as. y. Nat. er. io. 2.2.2 Journalists during Crisis. n. al. sit. "fake news" (Wishart, 2017; van der Meer et al., 2016).. Ch. i n U. v. As the aforementioned, the role of news media is crucial in the event of crisis, such as. engchi. natural disaster. As one of the major sources of information, the public expects news media to always provide them with the latest and accurate updates. Scholarships on journalistic roles during crisis had noted several points, such as the positive and negative effects journalists could pose for victims (Ewart & McLean, 2018); acting as government watchdogs while handling disaster and providing positive assurance (Nieves-Pizzaro & Takahashi; 2019); and even being the institutions to “point” who should be responsible for a disaster (Ewart & McLean, 2014). Similarly, news media could also reflect local situations when non-local, nation-wide media might misreport 21. DOI: 10.6814/NCCU201901262.

(29) certain aspects of a disaster event (Matthews, 2017). There are multiple roles journalists could play in the event of a disaster crisis, aside from providing information, journalists might ease the worry of victims and also to keep tabs on what the government did to aid victims. Factors such as journalists’ location (e.g., local or nationwide) or media’s positioning might influence how journalists approach disaster reporting. Nevertheless, the newsroom will always be responsible to update the public and expected to be both timely and accurate. These demands stress journalists and overwhelms them with workloads. Despite that, factual information are still much needed especially in this age of disinformation.. 立. 2.2.3 News Practices and Fake News. 政治大. News professionals play an important role to regulate fake news, being the individuals. ‧ 國. 學. behind media contents, they need to be able to access relevant information in order to accurately. ‧. report and verify false information (van der Meer et al., 2016). According to Tandoc et al., (2018),. sit. y. Nat. when fake news intersects with journalism, it puts journalism at a disadvantageous position as fake. io. er. news pulls people away from trusted news sources. In addition, with global decline of media and journalistic trusts (Pangrazio, 2018), it is necessary for news professionals to take actions to. n. al. Ch. debunk fake news and restore their public’s faith in them.. engchi. i n U. v. Trust and credibility are important aspects of news media, regardless whether they are in the form of offline or online news. Both can both be understood based on how news is formed or sourced, the medium of news message and reputation (Fletcher and Park, 2017; Coleman, Morrison & Anthony, 2012). In a nutshell, journalists will always seek for accurate and valid information, thus different weight is placed on different news-sources, especially during crisis, where accuracy matters a lot. Aside from accurate reporting, given the threats posed by rampant circulations of fake news online, it is necessary for journalists to be committed in verifying 22. DOI: 10.6814/NCCU201901262.

(30) information (Richardson, 2017). This is relevant as internet is not only adopted by users, but journalists have embraced the internet as one of their many sources (Cassidy, 2007) and given the risks of being exposed to fake news or false information, verification is important. Therefore, it is crucial to understand the whole process on how news is being produced in order to ensure quality and presenting truthful information. In general, news process can be categorized into (1) news gathering, (2) news production or processing, and (3) news distribution (Karlsson, 2011). In the following section, notions of news gathering and news production will be. 治政大 verification will also be discussed as a step in newsroom process. 立. discussed, in relations to fake news, such as maintaining quality and accuracy. Fact-checking and. 2.2.4 News Gathering and Ensuring Credibility. ‧ 國. 學. As the first step in providing news and information to the public, newsgathering refers to. ‧. the process journalists undergo to collect needed raw materials (Karlsson, 2011). When looking. sit. y. Nat. for materials, journalists can seek information and sources from other people (van der Meer et al.,. io. er. 2016) and also on the internet (Cassidy, 2007). However, when evaluating these two different types of sources, journalists may evaluate them differently although for the same reason, which is. n. al. Ch. to ensure that they have the right sources.. engchi. i n U. v. Journalism is a source-driven practice, and regardless of the issue context, such as coverage during the crisis, there are three relevant criteria utilized by journalists to evaluate their sources (van der Meer et al., 2016). These criteria are namely (1) journalistic judgment toward source qualities, (2) sources' activities and (3) the relationship between newsmakers and sources. Firstly, journalists evaluate the qualities of each respective source based on their credibility and knowledge. Credibility refers to whether a source can be accounted for their claims and to evaluate if a particular source can be evaluated as having accurate information. 23. DOI: 10.6814/NCCU201901262.

(31) According to Reich (2011), credibility evaluation is necessary to determine if a source's information is worthy to be included in news content. Whereas, knowledge refers to the extent a source portrays knowledge or having information related to the issue; knowledge is as important as being credible, but they differ as a source can possess the knowledge but not credible in the sense that they have their own hidden agenda. Secondly, sources' activities are conceptualized by willingness and timeliness. Journalists have to ensure that a source is willing to share the information they have at hand but at the same. 治政大 According to van der Meer aspect of newsgathering is extremely important for news professionals. 立 time to acknowledge that they have time pressure (Broersma & Graham, 2013). Timeliness as an. et al., (2016), when crisis struck, there is a pressing need for information and journalists have a. ‧ 國. 學. tighter deadline and as a result, they need to seek information from sources that not only have the. ‧. information but they can provide relevant information in accordance with their time pressures. Lastly, van der Meer et al. (2016) also included the relationship between a source and journalist is. y. Nat. er. io. sit. also an important determinant when journalists undergo the process of obtaining information; journalists tend to reach out to sources they are both familiar and trusted. Based on the good rapport. n. al. Ch. i n U. v. between sources and journalists, even during a crisis, there is a chance that these trusted sources indirectly influence news content.. engchi. 2.2.5 News Processing and Content Quality News processing is defined as the process of transforming raw materials gathered during news gathering into news content mediated by journalistic routines or procedures (Karlsson, 2011). The way information is journalistically processed will result in varying information quality, such as information that have not been filtered to meet audience needs will have lower quality (HimmaKadakas, 2017). Information gathered during the news gathering process will be processed again 24. DOI: 10.6814/NCCU201901262.

(32) in order to fit in with requirements of news media organizations and at the same time, considering the audience too (Reese & Shoemaker, 2016; Tanikawa, 2016). Additionally, during the process of creating news content, news professionals are guided with a set of news production processes in order to produce good journalism or to reduce bias and predispositions (Albæ k, Skovsgaar & de Vreese, 2017). According to Himma-Kadakas (2017), within the context of fake news, there are times when news professional found themselves caught within the web of misinformation; usually, due to pressing deadlines or needs to produce large. 治政大all information gathered in during resulting to errors in reporting. In the news processing phase, not 立 quantities of news, news professionals skipped or skimmed through steps (e.g. filtering) thus. the initial phase of news gathering will be selected as part of news constructions.. ‧ 國. 學. As the next step of producing news content, after information gathering, news professionals. ‧. will go through news construction and news correction. Based on Himma-Kadakas (2017) study, news construction is defined as the writing, planning and organizing information gathered,. y. Nat. er. io. sit. followed by producing a draft. Meanwhile, news correcting is defined as the revision stage, where news professionals go through their content to check facts, rewrite and correcting writing errors. n. al. such as grammar, style and typos.. Ch. engchi. i n U. v. Past studies on news construction such as Maat and de Jong (2012) on producing news from press-release revealed that journalists only used half of the original information they gathered during the stage of information gathering. Other studies also include processing and organizing information before news professionals construct news accordingly to their audience guided by organizational routines (Hodgetts et al., 2008). Likewise, news correction is necessary to not only avoid typing errors, but more importantly to ensure news content are suitable to be published. Both journalists and editors are responsible in revising and correcting information errors before 25. DOI: 10.6814/NCCU201901262.

(33) delivering it to the audience (Vandedaele, 2017). Study of Vandedaele, de Cuypere and Van Praet (2015) on sub-editors and correcting news content, results showed that oftentimes at this phase, one of the most revised news were those that were in high-stakes, for example if it will appear in headline news. 2.2.6 News Distribution on Social Media Regardless of whether a news organization has its offline counterpart or not, trust is essential when distributing news via online platforms. Similar to traditional news media,. 政治大 et al., 2012). The digital era provided people with benefits of being exposed to multiple varieties 立. information on online platforms have to be perceived as accurate and contents are credible (Chung. of news sources, but at the same time, exposes them to unfiltered information (Fletcher & Park,. ‧ 國. 學. 2017). Online platforms, especially social media such as Facebook has become a popular and. ‧. relevant vehicle for distributing news (Lischka, 2018). Moreover, by using social media, news. sit. y. Nat. professionals can drive audience to their news websites to increase web traffic.. io. er. Tracing the development of news distributions from the past, compared to the past when news media relied on traditional one-way news distribution channel, such as TV or newspaper, by. n. al. Ch. i n U. v. using the internet, news media can create their own traditional affiliated news sites (Chung, 2008).. engchi. However, Al-Rawi (2016) stated that as social media gained prominence, news media organizations realized the importance to use social media as a vehicle to distribute information, such as to engage with the audience or the ease of distributing information. For example, in the instance of crisis or breaking news, people will sought for information on social media (Shu et al., 2017), and news organization have to make use of social media to deliver needed information. With the surge of fake news in recent years especially on social media, news organizations are faced with challenges because fake news were able to attract more audience; as a result, news 26. DOI: 10.6814/NCCU201901262.

(34) organization have to even more compete for audience and ensure the public will consume news from legitimate sources (Lischka, 2018; Tandoc et al., 2018). Additionally, by using social media for news distribution, news organizations will be able to reach audience that may not be reached when distributing news from other media and also, to deliver quality-information for their audience (Al-Rawi, 2017). 2.3 Journalism and Fake News in Indonesia Indonesia was under the authoritarian regime that lasted for more than 30 years in which. 治政 the fall of the regime, known as the Reformation era in 1998.大 Currently, most media are not state立 owned, instead, are owned by conglomerates that changed the nature of Indonesian media into an media were tightly controlled and censored by the state and only experienced major changes after. ‧ 國. 學. oligarchy where powers are at the hands of a few people. Major media are owned by 12. ‧. conglomerate groups owning publications to major newspapers, online news portals, radio and TV networks (Mala & Hao, 2017; Lim, 2012).. y. Nat. er. io. sit. On the other hand, the amount of influence the state has media is less significant as compared to media conglomerates. The state only owned one TV and radio channel known as. n. al. Ch. i n U. v. TVRI and RRI. These forms of non-private ownership or commonly known as public broadcasting. engchi. service (PBS) have their operational costs subsidized by the government (Mastudi, 2014). They aim to be alternative media to voice out the voiceless and restore balance amid in commercial saturated media ecology in Indonesia. However, with increasing financial constraints and tighter competition with other media, it has become even more difficult for Indonesian PBS to stay afloat with the competition. Even though Indonesian journalists are not facing the same challenges back during the authoritarian regime, they are not facing a different set of challenges. As the world’s third largest 27. DOI: 10.6814/NCCU201901262.

(35) democracy, Indonesia has its press freedom rated as party free from Freedom House (2019), an organization that advocates freedom and democracy. By being labeled as party free, this means that although Indonesian journalists have a certain degree of freedom, they are still facing certain hindrances to achieving press freedom. These hindrances come in the forms of influences from media owners and certain laws riddled with ambiguities (Savitri & Renaldi, 2018; Ida, 2011; Steele, 2011). In return, journalistic professionalism is disturbed and may cause journalists to self-censor themselves, which is an issue for freedom of speech Table 2 is a summary of current media conglomerates adapted from Lim’s (2012) study,. 治政大 from traditional media to new the table shows conglomerates’ ownership expansions, ranging 立 media. It shows the amount of media owned by each owner and ownership of media is concentrated. ‧ 國. 學. within a few people only.. ‧. n. er. io. sit. y. Nat. al. Ch. engchi. i n U. v. 28. DOI: 10.6814/NCCU201901262.