Social media platforms create rich social structures, expand users' boundaries of social networks and revolutionize traditional forms of communications, social interactions and social relationships. These platforms not only facilitate the creation and sharing of news and information, but they also drive various kinds of businesses models, processes and operations, knowledge sharing, marketing strategies for brand management and socio-political discourses essential for healthy and democratic functions. As such, social media has greater implications on organizations and society brought about by individuals' social media usage patterns, and therefore, calls for further investigations. The main objective of this dissertation is to explore and offer insights into such social media usage and information sharing behaviors via data driven examination of various theories. This dissertation involves three studies that focus on factors that explain individuals' three different social media usage behaviors. Essay 1 investigates individuals' perceived importance of online affiliation, self-esteem, self-regulation and risk-benefit structure as antecedents of users' geo-tagging behavior on social media. Essay 2 examines the role of online news quality, source credibility, individuals' perception towards online civic engagement, attitude towards news sharing and social influences to understand users' news sharing behavior on social media platforms. Essay 3 seeks to examine the individuals' information verification behavior on social media through the lens of individuals' fake news awareness, perceived cost of information verification, trust in social media and truth-seeking.

Kapitel 1: Im Rahmen des Erwartungsnutzenmodells leite ich ein theoretisches Modell von choice bracketing aus zwei verhaltensökonomischen Axiomen ab. Das erste etabliert einen direkten Zusammenhang zwischen narrow bracketing und correlation neglect. Das zweite identifiziert den Referenzpunkt als den Ort, an dem broad und narrow Präferenzen miteinander verbunden sind. In meinem Modell ist der narrow bracketer durch die Unfähigkeit, Veränderungen vom Referenzpunkt in unterschiedlichen Dimensionen gleichzeitig zu verarbeiten, charakterisiert. Kapitel 2: Warum geben Menschen, wenn man sie fragt, präferieren aber, nicht gefragt zu werden, und nehmen sogar, wenn sich die Gelegenheit ergibt? Wir zeigen, dass Axiome wie Separabilität, narrow bracketing, und scaling invariance diese scheinbar widersprüchlichen Beobachtungen vorhersagen. Insbesondere implizieren diese Axiome, dass die Interdependenz von Präferenzen (“Altruismus”) ein Ergebnis des Interesses für das Wohlbefinden anderer im Gegensatz zu ihren bloßen Auszahlungen ist. Hierbei wird das Wohlbefinden durch die referenzabhängige Wertfunktion aus der Prospekttheorie erfasst. Kapitel 3: Wir untersuchen, wie sich fake news auf den Informationsfluss zwischen Nachrichtenportalen und  ökonomischen Agenten auswirkt. Wir erweitern das klassische cheaptalk- Modell um Unsicherheit über die Präferenzen des sender (Nachrichtenportal). Es gibt zwei Typen von Nachrichtenportalen. Ein fake-news-Portal möchte im Agenten unabhängig vom wahren Zustand eine maximale Erwartung wecken. Ein legitimes Nachrichtenportal möchte die Wahrheit offenbaren. Wir zeigen, dass jedes informative perfekte Bayesianische Gleichgewicht durch einen Schwellenwert charakterisiert ist. Während der Agent alle Zustände unter dem Schwellenwert unterscheiden kann, ist es ihm unmöglich, Zustände über dem Schwellenwert zu unterscheiden. / Chapter 1: I derive a theoretical model of choice bracketing from two behavioral axioms in an expected utility framework. The first behavioral axiom establishes a direct link between narrow bracketing and correlation neglect. The second behavioral axiom identifies the reference point as the place where broad and narrow preferences are connected. In my model, the narrow bracketer is characterized by an inability to process changes from the reference point in different dimensions simultaneously. Chapter 2: Why do people give when asked, but prefer not to be asked, and even take when possible? We show that standard behavioral axioms including separability, narrow bracketing, and scaling invariance predict these seemingly inconsistent observations. Specifically, these axioms imply that interdependence of preferences (“altruism”) results from concerns for the welfare of others, as opposed to their mere payoffs, where individual welfares are captured by the reference-dependent value functions known from prospect theory. The resulting preferences are non-convex, which captures giving, sorting, and taking directly. Chapter 3: We present a theoretical model to investigate how the presence of fake news affects information transmission from media outlets to economic agents. In a standard cheap talk framework we introduce uncertainty about the sender’s (media outlet’s) preferences. There are two types of media outlets. A fake news outlet wants to push the agent’s belief to the maximum irrespective of the state of the world. A legitimate outlet wants to reveal the true state to the agent. We show that any informative perfect Bayesian equilibrium of our game is characterized by a threshold value. While the agent can perfectly separate amongst states below the threshold value, there is no separation amongst states above the threshold value. We determine the unique most informative threshold value for a general class of equilibria.

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As with every U.S. election cycle, the early 2016 election season was a roller-coaster experience, with positive and negative campaign messages emerging from both parties, and with high hopes and dashed hopes for both Democratic and Republican candidates. However, as Donald J. Trump emerged as the Republican candidate to challenge Democrat Hillary R. Clinton for the Office of President, the United States appeared to be equally bemused, horrified and confident in a Democratic victory — after all, how could someone so unorthodox as Donald Trump become the next president? His divisive campaign had become predictive, for many voters, of a clear victory for Clinton. However, those within vulnerable groups, including women, immigrants and the LGBTQ communities, along with many allies, noted the growing normalization of his micro- and macro-aggressions by the mainstream media, and the societal legitimization of his campaign.

A form of political disinformation that had a prominent place in journalism during the US presidential election in 2016 was called fake news. There were, however, uncertainties what could be called fake news. The purpose of this study was to explore qualitatively how mainstream media described the word fake news. The data collection approach was inductive. Data were collected primarily by searching the electronic media databases. The qualitative analysis of 212 articles resulted in two overarching themes which outlines how the concept of fake news has been described in meanstream media. The results of the analysis resulted in the two themes: fabricated lie and distorted truth. The main conclusion is that it circulates two different meanings for the concept of fake news. These definitions of fake news have different meanings, areas of action, actors behind och motives.

This study takes a qualitative approach to contextualizing and examining the communication of the so-called Kremlin trolls on Twitter, in relation to two major political processes that occurred in 2016, namely the Brexit referendum and the U.S. presidential election. Moreover, the study examines the news media of the two respective countries’ portrayal of the “Kremlin trolls”. The study assesses and problematizes mainstream application and contemporary usage of terminology in relation to two phenomena central to this thesis, namely: “Kremlin trolls”, and “fake news”. The study reconceptualizes the respective concepts into the “Kremlin meddlers” and “deceitful news”, as it was found those terms more accurately reflect both phenomena. Two sets of empirical data are examined in the thesis, one of which consists of 62 posts derived from 14 accounts of the Kremlin meddlers’ Twitter accounts. The other consistsof 30 articles stemming from 10 different news outlets, 5 of which were U.K. news outlets and 5 U.S. news sites, covering the political spectrum from one end to the other. The study applies one theoretical framework toexamine both sets of empiricaldata, namely Teun van Dijk’s Critical Discourse Analysis. The Kremlin meddlers’ Twitter accounts used two strategies to influence the electorates of both countries, one of which was to hide under the guise of pseudonyms impersonating actual citizens of the two nations. The other strategy employed by the meddlers was to maintain accounts that simulated news outlets, acting and appearing much like a legitimate news outlet would on the platform. The communication of the Kremlin meddlers was primarily aimed atsupporters of the ideological right by (re)producing discourse highly critical of the ideological left, this is particularly so for the Twitter accounts seeking to impersonate actual people. The pursuit of ideological polarization is centralin their communication.In the news media’s portrayal of the meddlers,differences are foundacross the ideological spectrum. The study identifies three themesin the discourse; one portraying the meddlers’ in a humanizing view, one creating a Them vs. Us categorization between Russia and the West, and the last focusing on the meddlers’ impacton democratic processes. Intrinsic to all of the themes is the (re)production of elite discourse, primarily seen through the selective use of voices from the symbolic elite to construct the social reality.

The purpose of this thesis is to investigate young people's approach to media consumption. The presumed objective of the thesis is to ascertain the method that young users apply to evaluate the credibility of news sources in the media. In the first theoretical part the thesis explains the status of the media in the information age and changes related to the field. It also discusses the need for media literacy and its possible development via media education. The chapter finishes with an overview of the most important data from recent studies concerning young people and the media. Second part consist of a qualitative research that is inspired by the research design of the theory by Strauss and Corbin (1999). Data for this research were obtained from 21 in depth interviews among 18 and 19 years old Czech citizens. The open coding was used for the analysis. The outcome of the analysis was interpreted through the method of constant comparation. The result of the research is a creation of four typological user groups according to the type of use of the news resources in the media.

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La presente investigación examina los mecanismos en que se puede evidenciar la desinformación y la posverdad en el periodismo de opinión. Para abordar este tema, se elabora un instrumento que identifica estos mecanismos en el contenido de las columnas de opinión de Aldo Mariátegui y Luis García, en los diarios Perú21 y Expreso respectivamente, que tratan sobre el segundo proceso de vacancia contra el expresidente Pedro Pablo Kuczynski desde que este proceso empezó hasta un día luego de que el presidente Martín Vizcarra entrara al cargo. El primer capítulo se dedica a la explorar el origen de la posverdad en la desinformación, así como a analizar qué elementos estos comparten y cómo se ha dado su traspase de uno al otro. Asimismo, se delimitan los mecanismos de la desinformación y posverdad que se relacionan al periodismo de opinión: falacias como la ad populum, la afirmación gratuita y la generalización precipitada; así como términos de descalificación personal y referencia a noticias falsas. En el segundo capítulo se explora y se da un recuento del estado del periodismo de opinión en Perú. Posteriormente, se elabora un instrumento para examinar las columnas escogidas, y se analizan los hallazgos de ese proceso. Estos hallazgos nos revelan que en las columnas analizadas se podía advertir que el uso de estos mecanismos de la desinformación y posverdad, falacias y términos de descalificación personal, reemplazaban la argumentación necesaria para sostener sus posturas. / The following research examines some mechanisms that can show the presence of disinformation and post-truth in opinion journalism. To address this issue, it develops an instrument that helps to identify these mechanisms in the content of the opinion columns of Aldo Mariátegui and Luis García, in the newspapers Perú21 and Expreso respectively, that comment on the second impeachment process against former President Pedro Pablo Kuczynski. The period of analysis took place since the process started until one day after President Martín Vizcarra took office. The first chapter explores the origin of post-truth in disinformation, as well as analyzing what elements they share and how they have transferred from one to the other. Likewise, the mechanisms of disinformation and post-truth that are related to opinion journalism are delimited: fallacies such as ad populum, gratuitous affirmation and hasty generalization, as well as name-calling (adjectives of personal disqualification) and reference to fake news. In the second chapter, this research explores the context and state of opinion journalism in Peru. Subsequently, an instrument is developed to review the chosen columns and analyse the findings of this process were discussed. These findings reveal that in the opinion columns that were analyzed, the use of these disinformation and post-truth mechanism, as fallacies and name-calling (adjectives of personal disqualification), replaces the arguments needed to defend their stances. / Tesis