Combating mis-and disinformation with news literacy messages: The influence of the format

An important tool in the battle against mis- and dis-information are news literacy messages (nlm’s); messages providing citizens information about how to recognize false news. Previous research on nlm’s show that they are effective. After exposure to such a message, respondents were better able to distinguish real news articles from news articles containing misinformation (Tully et al., 2022). However, several questions about the effectiveness of nlm’s remain unanswered. First, it remains unclear which news literacy format works best. While previous studies have looked at formats such as information sheets, infographics, and video’s individually (e.g. Domgaard & Park, 2021), systematic comparisons of formats are lacking. Second, it remains unclear whether the effects of nlm’s are robust over time. This study aims to provide an answer to these questions. We compare the effectiveness of three types of formats of news literacy messages–information sheets, infographics, and videos–and investigate to what extent the format influences their effectiveness over time. Based on cognitive load theory (Sweller et al., 1998) and dual coding theory (Clark & Paivio, 1991) we expect that nlm’s presenting information in a clearer and more appealing way (infographics), and combining verbal and visual information (video’s), will be more easily processed and therefore more effective. Moreover, such messages will remain more effective over time, as the information is more easily retained. Concretely, this means that we hypothesize that nlm’s delivered as infographics are more effective in making people resilient to misinformation than those in the format of information sheets (H1), and we expect videos to be more successful than infographics (H2) and information sheets (H3). Additionally, we expect that the decay-effect, the decreasing effectiveness of nlm’s over time, will be less pronounced for videos compared to infographics (H4) and information sheets (H5). To test our hypotheses we conduct a survey experiment in Belgium (n=2000), in which we manipulate the nlm participants are exposed to. Participants either do not read a nlm (control), or are exposed to one out of three versions of a nlm, with this message being either in the format of an information sheet, an infographic, or a short video. After being exposed to the nlm participants read two news articles–one accurate article and one misinformation article–and are asked about their perceived accuracy of these articles via three seven-point items (perceived accuracy, truthfulness and deceitfulness). To examine the decay effect, we conduct a second wave three weeks later where the same participants are again asked to read two news articles (one true, one false) and indicate the perceived accuracy. References: Clark, J.M., & Paivio, A. (1991). Dual coding theory and education. Educational psychology review, 3, 149-210. Domgaard, S., & Park, M. (2021). Combating misinformation: The effects of infographics in verifying false vaccine news. Health Education Journal, 80(8),974-986. Sweller, J., Van Merrienboer, J.J., & Paas, F.G. (1998). Cognitive architecture and instructional design. Educational psychology review, 10(3),251-296. Tully, M., Vraga, E.K., & Bode, L. (2020). Designing and testing news literacy messages for social media. Mass Communication and Society, 23(1),22-46.