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Misinformation remains pervasive in digital platforms, shaping how individuals receive news online. Prior work suggests that credibility perceptions of misinformation can differ based on the modality of the misinformation message. Informed by the MAIN model, this quantitative study conducted two separate 2 (Modality: video or text) x 2 (Social endorsement cues: high vs. low) between-subject experiments to assess the influence of message modality and social endorsement cues on misinformation credibility judgments. The experiments reviewed two different topics of misinformation: artificial intelligence technology malfunction (N = 296) and a cure for cancer (N = 306). Results for Study 1 on artificial intelligent technology malfunction misinformation indicated that participants who viewed the video modality judged a higher perception of source expertise and message credibility. The results of Study 2 suggested that the text presentation of health misinformation prompted higher message elaboration relative to the video conditions. Findings suggest that modality does influence how people judge misinformation messages depending on the subject matter. In addition, source credibility influences how people judge message credibility. The paper concludes with a discussion of theoretical implications and practical applications.

People choose to spend a large amount of their time on the internet these days, which has led to an increase in search engine marketing. It is a form of online marketing that displays the ads as organic and sponsored links and is considered less intrusive by internet users. However, internet users' low perceived credibility towards online marketing, in general, seems to be affecting their perception of the two links as well. There is currently a gap in knowledge regarding what factors affect internet users' perceived credibility towards organic and sponsored links. This was explored in this study to see what affects the users' perception and how it could be raised. The trustworthiness, expertise, and attractiveness factors in the source credibility theory were utilized and explored to see if they affected the internet users' perceived credibility towards the links. This was achieved through a quantitative study and by conducting two questionnaires with sample sizes of 140 respondents each. The findings of this study indicate that the three factors positively affect internet users' perceived credibility. By performing a t-test on the combined results from the two questionnaires, it was also evident that which type of link it is, organic or sponsored, plays a significant role in how the users perceive the link’s credibility. The organic links have a more positive effect on the users' perceived credibility and are viewed as more credible than the sponsored links, suggesting a bias towards the sponsored links.

Covid-19 pandemin har påverkat många länder runt om i världen. Folkhälsomyndigheten i Sverige införde restriktioner och rekommendationer för att skydda samhällets befolkning från att smittas av viruset. I samband med pandemin har det uppkommit ett överflöd av nyheter gällande covid-19 inom både traditionella och digitala medier. Syftet med studien är att undersöka om Folkhälsomyndigheten har påverkats utifrån de olika nyhetsmedier som informerat om covid-19 men även om det finns ett samband mellan studiens fynd och Folkhälsomyndighetens kommunikationsinsatser. Studien har använt sig av source credibility (Hovland et al. 1953) och media credibility (Westley & Severin, 1964; W.Roper, 1959; Bucy, 2003) teorierna som teoretiskt ramverk, relevanta forskningsstudier inom trovärdighet och medier och Folkhälsomyndighetens pandemiberedskapsrapport. Det empiriska underlaget i studien utgår från tolv semistrukturerade intervjuer som genomförts med respondenter inom två åldersgrupper, 20–25 år och 65–70 år. Det har genomförts en tematisk analys för att hitta likheter och skillnader mellan respondenternas svar vilket utformat teman, public service och trovärdighet, nyhetskomsumption, källhänvisning och trovärdighet, språk och det visuella i samband med trovärdighet, respondenternas bild av Folkhälsomyndigheten, massinformation, Folkhälsomyndighetens påverkan av nyhetsmedier, digitala och traditionella medier och Folkhälsomyndighetens expertis. Studiens resultat visar att det uppkommer en svårighet med att mäta respondenternas trovärdighet till Folkhälsomyndigheten genom nyhetsmedier då det uppkommer andra faktorer som är mer påtagliga än faktorerna expertis och tillförlitlighet inom source- och media credibility teorierna. Dessa faktorer är respondenternas livsstil, vanor, journalistik, visuell påverkan, källhänvisning och public service. Det fanns samband med faktorerna och Folkhälsomyndigheternas sex kommunikationsstrategier och genom att myndigheten tar hänsyn till åldersgruppernas faktorer för trovärdighet kan det gynna deras risk- och konsekvensbedömningar inom kommunikationsarbetet inför kommande pandemier. Slutsatsen är att Folkhälsomyndighetens bild inte har påverkats av nyhetsmedierna. Digitala och traditionella medier har inte varit avgörande för respondenternas uppfattning av Folkhälsomyndighetens trovärdighet. Studien belyser även komplexiteten med trovärdighetsbedömningar då respondenterna hade svårigheter med att särskilja avsändaren, meddelandet och mediet. / The Covid-19 pandemic has affected many countries around the world. The Swedish Public Health Agency introduced restrictions and recommendations to protect society's population from being infected by the virus. In connection with the pandemic, there has been an abundance of news regarding covid-19 in both traditional and digital media. The purpose of the study is to investigate whether the Swedish Public Health Agency has been affected based on the various news media that informed about covid-19, but also whether there is a connection between the study's findings and the Swedish Public Health Agency's communication efforts. The study has used the source credibility (Hovland et al. 1953) and media credibility (Westley & Severin, 1964; W. Roper, 1959; Bucy, 2003) theories as a theoretical framework, relevant research studies in credibility, media and the Public Health Agency's pandemic preparedness report. The empirical basis of the study is based on twelve semi-structured interviews conducted with respondents in two age groups, 20–25 years and 65–70 years. A thematic analysis has been carried out to find similarities and differences between the respondents 'answers, which designed themes, public service and credibility, news consumption, source reference and credibility, language and the visual in connection with credibility, respondents' image of the Public Health Agency, mass information, Public Health Agency's influence on news media, digital and traditional media, and the Swedish Public Health Agency's expertise. The results of the study show that there is a difficulty in measuring the respondents' credibility to the Public Health Agency through news media as other factors arise that are more obvious than the factors expertise and reliability within the source and media credibility theories. These factors are the respondents' lifestyle, habits, journalism, visual impact, source reference and public service. There were connections with the factors and the Public Health Authorities 'six communication strategies, and by the authority considering the age groups' factors for credibility, it can benefit their risk and impact assessments in the communication work before future pandemics. The conclusion is that the Public Health Agency's image has not been influenced by the news media. Digital and traditional media have not been decisive for the respondents' perception of the Public Health Agency's credibility. The study also highlights the complexity of credibility assessments as respondents had difficulty distinguishing between sender, message and medium.

Att företag använder sig av influencers som ett marknadsföringsverktyg på sociala medier blir allt vanligare att se. Precis som det engelska ursprungsordet influence betyder så handlar influencer marketing om att varumärken använder personer med stora nätverk av följare för att påverka andra konsumenter till varumärkeskännedom och köpbeslut. Syftet med denna studie är att undersöka hur varumärken använder sig utav influencers som ett marknadsföringsverktyg för att skapa trovärdighet genom samarbeten på sociala medier. Studien har undersökt vad det finns för möjligheter samt problem som denna typ av marknadsföringsverktyg kan innebära. För att undersöka frågeställningen har författarna intervjuat två medelstora influencers och två stora varumärken inom skönhet. Deras expertis och kunskap inom influencer marketing har bidragit till ett exceptionellt forskningsmaterial för denna studie. Slutsatsen visade på att varumärken som använder influencers som ett marknadsföringsverktyg gör det i syfte att stärka relationen till sina kunder, samtidigt som de vill öka sin varumärkeskännedom. Influencers som samarbetar med varumärken anser sig själva inspirera sina följare att prova nya varumärken, samtidigt som de ger en ärlig och rättvis recension. Detta sammanlänkar de tre delarna som ingår i marknadsföringsverktyget, vilket är influencer, mottagare och varumärke. / The fact that companies use influencers as a marketing tool on social media is becoming increasingly more common. Just as the English origin word influence means, influencer marketing is about brands using someone with a large number of followers and a power to affect and influence other consumers to brand awareness and purchasing decisions. The purpose of this study is to investigate how brands use influencers as a marketing tool to create credibility through collaborations on social media. The study will examine what opportunities there are as well as problems that this type of marketing tool can entail. To answer the research question, the authors have interviewed two medium-sized influencers and two major beauty brands. Their expertise and knowledge in influencer marketing have contributed to an exceptional research material for this study. The conclusion showed that brands that use influencers as a marketing tool do it, in order to strengthen the relationship with their customers, while at the same time increase their brand awareness. Influencers who work with brands consider themselves to inspire their followers to try new brands, while giving them an honest and fair review. This conclusion links the three parts included in the marketing tool, which are influencers, recipients and brands.

Background: With the adoption of smartphones, a new mean of communication emerged for businesses, calling for deep knowledge on how to leverage this profitable direct-link to consumers. However, previous literature has mainly studied the subject from a quantitative standpoint with a theoretical foundation built on traditional advertising, hence, not studying the subject on its own. It is therefore relevant to study the topic from the ground up, exploring users perspective on main factors driving their attitudes towards mobile advertising.Purpose: To explore consumer attitudes toward mobile advertising.Methodology: A qualitative exploratory study based on 4 focus groups, sampled through convenience sampling and analysed using direct content analysis.Conclusion: Findings indicate that, mobile advertising lack credibility, which drives negative attitudes and that entertainment was non-present in mobile advertising. Perceptions expressed a vast element of irritation and that informativeness depends on the relevance of ads forming the outcome of attitude. Additionally, personalization emerged as a component influencing the majority of the studied factors, and consequently suggested to be further studied as a factor on its own.

published_or_final_version / Statistics and Actuarial Science / Master / Master of Philosophy

The three objectives of this dissertation were to develop a question type model for predicting linguistic features of responses to interview questions, create a tool for linguistic analysis of documents, and use lexical bundle analysis to identify linguistic differences between fraudulent and non-fraudulent financial reports. First, The Moffitt Question Type Model (MQTM) was developed to aid in predicting linguistic features of responses to questions. It focuses on three context independent features of questions: tense (past vs. present vs. future), perspective (introspective vs. extrospective), and abstractness (concrete vs. conjectural). The MQTM was tested on responses to real-world pre-polygraph examination questions in which guilty (n = 27) and innocent (n = 20) interviewees were interviewed. The responses were grouped according to question type and the linguistic cues from each groups' transcripts were compared using independent samples t-tests with the following results: future tense questions elicited more future tense words than either past or present tense questions and present tense questions elicited more present tense words than past tense questions; introspective questions elicited more cognitive process words and affective words than extrospective questions; and conjectural questions elicited more auxiliary verbs, tentativeness words, and cognitive process words than concrete questions. Second, a tool for linguistic analysis of text documents, Structured Programming for Linguistic Cue Extraction (SPLICE), was developed to help researchers and software developers compute linguistic values for dictionary-based cues and cues that require natural language processing techniques. SPLICE implements a GUI interface for researchers and an API for developers. Finally, an analysis of 560 lexical bundles detected linguistic differences between 101 fraudulent and 101 non-fraudulent 10-K filings. Phrases such as "the fair value of," and "goodwill and other intangible assets" were used at a much higher rate in fraudulent 10-Ks. A principal component analysis reduced the number of variables to 88 orthogonal components which were used in a discriminant analysis that classified the documents with 71% accuracy. Findings in this dissertation suggest the MQTM could be used to predict features of interviewee responses in most contexts and that lexical bundle analysis is a viable tool for discriminating between fraudulent and non-fraudulent text.

The aim of this thesis is to study native advertising and the public perception of newspaper credibility, and if this form of advertising have any ethical implications for the newspapers. Recent studies show that native advertising is perceived, from the public’s perspective, as a deceptive form of advertisement. Therefore this thesis also seeks to understand how the public copes with this deceptive form of advertisement. This thesis employs a qualitative research approach through focus group studies that include three different age groups, reaching from students aged 20-30 up to retirees aged 65 and up. Findings suggest that native advertising has a negative effect on the readers; the respondents explained that they found this form of advertising deceptive and also ethically problematic for the papers. Results also showed that the readers preferred advertisement where they felt in control of the outcome of the persuasion attempt. The study concludes that the public’s credibility judgment towards the newspapers weaken by native advertising.

Individuals around the globe engage in sustainable consumption in their everyday life, e.g., when it comes to individual transportation. Although tourism behavior contributes to global carbon emissions to a considerable extent, consumers' awareness of sustainability in the tourism industry is still underresearched. Placing eco-labels next to tourist offers on websites might direct consumer's perception towards more sustainable offers. By employing eye-tracking techniques and surveys, this research aimed at linking information about sustainable tourist offers, perception of eco-labels and subsequent perception and preferences of tourism services. In Study 1, eight existing hotel offers with sustainability certification (four different labels) were selected and their websites presented to 48 participants (four websites each), whose eye movements were tracked. After looking at each website, they rated the overall appearance of the website. Based on the results, in the second study, participants' (n = 642) awareness of labels, their values and attitudes regarding sustainable behavior were found to influence their preference for certified tour operators. In addition, individuals' ideas of their perfect holidays were captured to allow a better understanding of their motivation. This research proposes implementing appropriate sustainable labeling in the tourism industry to increase awareness about sustainability among travelers and subsequently increase sustainable travel behavior.