| dc.description.abstract | The increasing overgrowth of information is only getting harder to navigate through and the spread of fake news and misinformation is concerning. With the shift towards digital deliv- ery of news and concerns about the accuracy and reliability of information shared on social media, it is important to understand the factors that contribute to trust in social media news. Motivated by these challenges, this study aimed to investigate what effect Instagram filters have on users’ perceived trust in online news posts. Trust ratings of four different articles with four different image filters, including the original image, were collected through an on- line user study. Also, the role of general trust and familiarity with the topic and the context of the different topics were explored. We did an online experiment with 204 participants recruited from a crowdsourcing platform. Participants were asked to answer six questions per online news post shown. Our analysis revealed that while Instagram filters overall may not affect perceived trust, specific visual characteristics of the filters such as brightness and contrast may play a role. Additionally, individual differences in general trust and attitude to- wards the topic may influence the users’ perception of trust. The study also found that there may be differences in perceived trust across different news topics. Thus, there could be other factors influencing the users’ participants of trust. | |
