Computers in Human Behavior 29 (2013) 2622–2631

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Computers in Human Behavior

journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/comphumbeh

Information sharing on social media sites

Babajide Osatuyi ⇑
Department of Computer Information Systems & Quantitative Methods, College of Business Administration, The University of Texas-Pan American, 1201 W University Drive,
Edinburg, TX 78539, United States

a r t i c l e i n f o a b s t r a c t

Article history: This study reports on an exploratory survey conducted to investigate the use of social media technologies
Available online 26 July 2013 for sharing information. This paper explores the issue of credibility of the information shared in the con-
text of computer-mediated communication. Four categories of information were explored: sensitive, sen-
Keywords: sational, political and casual information, across five popular social media technologies: social
Information sharing networking sites, micro-blogging sites, wikis, online forums, and online blogs. One hundred and fourteen
Social media active users of social media technologies participated in the study. The exploratory analysis conducted in
Credibility
this study revealed that information producers use different cues to indicate credibility of the informa-
Computer-mediated communication
Exploratory
tion they share on different social media sites. Organizations can leverage findings from this study to
improve targeted engagement with their customers. The operationalization of how information credibil-
ity is codified by information producers contributes to knowledge in social media research.
Ó 2013 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

1. Introduction study as the ability to verify or confirm pieces of information

shared on social media sites. This paper explores the issue of the
Social media technologies such as social networking sites, blogs, credibility of the information shared in the context of computer-
forums, wikis and microblogging tools are becoming a reliable mediated communication. An understanding of how information
platform for sharing information to target audiences in a timely producers codify information shared on social media sites in order
manner. This is a result of the wide user base and the rapid spread to convey its credibility will benefit information seekers that will
of information it affords to subscribed users. Organizations are consume the information.
increasingly using social media technologies to interact with their The study described in this paper details a descriptive account
customers (Sjöberg, 2010; Wu & Pinsonneault, 2011). For example, of how different types of information are shared on five popular so-
some organizations conduct polls on social media sites to seek cus- cial media sites. During this investigation, the author also explored
tomers’ opinion on ways to improve a particular product or service cues that are included in messages shared to ascertain the credibil-
that they provide (Pingitore, Li, Gigliotti, & Eckert, 2012; Wilkinson ity of the information for the intended audience. In order to under-
& Thelwall, 2012). The government sector is also exploring ways to stand how to effectively utilize social media technologies for
utilize social media technologies to reach their citizens (Asuni & individuals and organizations, there is a need to identify how peo-
Farris, 2011; Mungiu-Pippidi, 2009). ple tend to use them to share different types of information. The
Although the use of social media sites for sharing information results from this study will contribute to the understanding of
and engaging target audiences have been shown to have positive the credibility indicators of information shared on social media
outcomes (Erickson, 2011; Lewis, 2010; Mergel, 2010), there are technologies, and ultimately the domain of computer-mediated
a number of uncertainties associated with their use. The most communication technology.
important uncertainty associated with the use of social media is Social media technologies are computer-mediated communica-
the credibility of both the information shared and that of the infor- tion technologies that are typically used to connect people, as well
mation source, which is referred to in this paper as the dual infor- as to produce and share user-generated content (Lewis, 2010).
mation credibility problem. In a study conducted by Santana and Generally, social media technologies are referred to as social net-
Wood (2009), the issue of the credibility of the information source working sites, microblogging sites, wikis, forums, and blogs (Osa-
was raised as a non-trivial factor that may be responsible for the tuyi, 2012). Social media technologies have been intuitively
effective utilization of the information shared on social media categorized based on how users interact with them. For instance,
technologies. Information credibility is conceptualized in this social networking sites such as Facebook, Twitter, MySpace, Four-
Square, and LinkedIn, are mainly used to share updates on users’
⇑ Tel.: +1 956 6653353; fax: +1 862 234 0256. daily encounter, as they occur, especially photos. Some popular so-
E-mail address: [email protected]
cial networking sites include, Facebook, MySpace, and LinkedIn.

0747-5632/$ - see front matter Ó 2013 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.chb.2013.07.001
 B. Osatuyi / Computers in Human Behavior 29 (2013) 2622–2631 2623

Microblogging sites allow users to create and share short messages Table 2
with the public or a targeted audience. Wikis are typically websites Information classification framework on social media sites.

created to provide educational information. Permissions may be gi- Information Social media technology; information Information
ven to users based on their status, to modify content on the web- source dynamism [(D)ynamic or (S)tatic] type
site. Online forums are discussion sites where participants hold Primary Microblogs (e.g., Tweets)[D], Social Political,
conversations that are posted to a discussion board. Forums are Network posts[D], Photo sharing[D] sensational,
usually focused on a specific topic, product or event. For example, Casual
Secondary Forums[D/S] Personal
online retailers such as Amazon and eBay, have forums for custom- Tertiary Wikis[S], Blogs[D/S] Political
ers to discuss their transactional experiences. Online blogs are per- (history)
sonal journals published on the Internet. Blogs are often created
and maintained by an individual or occasionally by a small group
with the goal of propagating an agenda centered on a specific top-
ical area. Traditional media companies are increasingly keeping tails. The types of information explored in this study include
blogs to continue interaction with customers that subscribe to personal (or sensitive) information (Lewis, 2010), sensational infor-
their publications (Chung, Kim, Trammell, & Porter, 2007). mation (Dahlstrom, Campbell, & Hewitt, 2012), political informa-
tion (Asuni & Farris, 2011; Mungiu-Pippidi, 2009), and casual
information (Lewis, 2010). The information types explored in this
2. Information characteristics framework study are exemplary of the information produced and consumed
on social media technologies. Personal information are those that
Information is construed in this study as an entity that is either are considered private to the information sharer such as health
produced or consumed. In addition, this study characterizes infor- conditions, relationship status and family details that are only typ-
mation along two dimensions, dynamism and source. Information ically shared with people considered close or people that may be
is considered dynamic when it generates multiple conversations experiencing a similar situation. Sensational information refers to
among its consumers. Otherwise, information is considered static breaking news, typically discussed by a great population of people
when its sole intent is to provide information without an opportu- over a short period of time, such as celebrity gossips and red carpet
nity to gather response or reactions to the information shared. fashion talks during the Grammys award. Political information re-
Examples of static information may include announcements, fers to those that pertain to discussions about government-related
reminders and deadlines. events and news such as discussion of electoral campaigns and rul-
From an epistemology standpoint, there are three main infor- ings of the Supreme Court. Finally, casual information refers to
mation sources namely, primary, secondary and tertiary informa- information shared among friends, colleagues or even business
tion. This classification is based on the perspective of the partners such as the discussion of a good restaurant to have lunch
information provider. Primary information comprises of original or a great resort to go for vacation. The author reckons that the
materials that are created first hand without been filtered though types of information explored in this study are by no means
interpretation such as tweets about an event, diary entries, tele- exhaustive. However, this list can be used as a foundation for a
phone conversations, and text messages. Secondary information framework to describe a taxonomy of information types that is
refers to accounts documented after the fact with the benefit of shared on social media sites. Hence we formulate the research
hindsight such as published books, commentaries, journal articles questions for this study:
and biographies. It embodies the interpretations and evaluations RQ1: Does the codification of information credibility vary across
of primary information. Tertiary information refers to the collec- different social media sites?
tion and aggregation of primary and secondary information such RQ2: Does the type of information shared vary on different social
as encyclopedias, calendars and fact books. Information shared media sites?
on social technologies can be generally classified as primary, sec- Table 2 below depicts the comprehensive framework that is
ondary or tertiary based on the dynamism associated with the used in this study to classify information shared on social technol-
information shared. Table 1 below provides a framework for clas- ogies based on the source, the social media technology used and
sifying information shared on social technologies. the type of information shared.
Taken together, based on the information sharing behavior of This study makes the following contributions: (a) formulation
humans described above, the dynamism of the information to be of the dual information credibility phenomena; (b) building a
shared and the structural differences of the social media sites, framework for describing types of information shared on social
users will tend to interact with their social groups differently based media sites; and (c) indicators of information credibility on social
on the type of information they intend to share. This study exam- media communication.
ines types of information shared on social media sites explored in a The rest of the paper is organized as follows. The next section
recent study (Osatuyi, 2012). Studies on online information credi- presents a review of related studies and theories that provide the
bility have focused on news or political information to the exclu- context for the use of social media technologies for sharing infor-
sion of other types of information (Flanagin & Metzger, 2000). mation and social exchange theory. Next, the results of the explor-
Flanagin explored classified information types as commercial, atory analysis are presented. The research design and procedure
entertainment, news and reference (factual and non-news) infor- are then briefly described. The paper concludes with the discussion
mation, see (Flanagin & Metzger, 2000) for the classification de- of the results and their implications to practice and research.

Table 1
Information Characteristics Framework.
3. Background
Information Social media technology; information dynamism
source [(D)ynamic or (S)tatic] 3.1. The use of social media for information sharing
Primary Microblogs (e.g., Tweets)[D], Social Network posts[D],
photo sharing[D] The use of social media to share information is gradually replac-
Secondary Forums [D/S]
ing the traditional media outlets such as television, newspaper, and
Tertiary Wikis [S], Blogs [D/S]
radio. Social media has become a catchphrase that managers across
2624 B. Osatuyi / Computers in Human Behavior 29 (2013) 2622–2631

several domains are using to actively communicate with their cus- to identify socio-demographic and health-related factors associ-
tomers in order to maintain a competitive edge (Sjöberg, 2010). ated with adult social users in the United States. It was found that
While the advantages are becoming obvious, the knowledge on approximately 69% of US adults reported having access to the
how to effectively share information on social media sites is crucial Internet in 2007 (Chou, Hunt, Beckjord, Moser, & Hesse, 2009).
in order to actively engage the target audience. Among Internet users, 5% participated in an online support group,
Liu et al. (2012) proposed a conceptual model to investigate the 7% reported blogging, and 23% used a social networking site. Mul-
determinants of information retweeting in microblogging based on tivariate analysis found that younger age was the only significant
Heuristic-Systematic Model, with an application area in emergency predictor of blogging and social networking site participation; a
events. The study found that source trustworthiness, source exper- statistically significant linear relationship was observed, with
tise, source attractiveness, and the number of multimedia have sig- younger categories reporting more frequent use. Younger age,
nificant effects on the information retweeting. In addition, source poorer subjective health, and a personal cancer experience pre-
expertise moderates the effects of user trustworthiness and con- dicted support group participation. The study concludes that social
tent objectivity on the information retweeting in microblogging. media technologies are penetrating the US population independent
Liu et al.’s (2012) study provides an in-depth understanding of of education, race/ethnicity, or health care access (Chou et al.,
what makes information about emergency events in microblogging 2009). Although healthcare information is considered private
diffuse so rapidly. information, the use of social technologies can potentially avail
The use of social media for responding to emergencies and cre- users to an enormous amount of treatment ideas that may be ben-
ating situational awareness has risen in recent years (Qu, Huang, eficial to the user.
Zhang, & Zhang, 2011; Starbird & Palen, 2012). Social networking
sites have been actively used to solicit support for resources to 3.2. Social exchange theory and information credibility
aid affected victims during disasters (Vieweg, Hughes, Starbird, &
Palen, 2010). In addition to providing situational awareness and Research in behavioral psychology suggests that people have an
soliciting support, social networking sites have also been utilized innate tendency to share information (Fehr, Bernhard, & Rocken-
as a means of publicizing the picture, names and addresses of miss- bach, 2008; Warneken & Tomasello, 2006; Warneken & Tomasello,
ing persons so that relatives, friends or anyone that finds them can 2009). The propensity for people to cooperate and share resources
easily help with reuniting them to their loved ones. For instance, and information stems from the underlying cost-benefit analysis
after the Hurricane Katrina event, victims were found to continu- principle in economics (Boardman, Greenberg, Vining, & Weimer,
ally use social media technologies to share personal information 2006). While it has been reported that humans may not always
about their status, which helped to rebuild a sense of community be rational, there is evidence that they tend to be cooperative by
in the recovery stages (Shklovski, Burke, Kiesler, & Kraut, 2008). nature (Olson & Spelke, 2008). This suggests that people are gener-
In the case of the instance described sharing personal information ally inclined to share information and cooperate whether or not ex-
was not exclusive as it will help, more than harm the information plicit benefits are involved. In the context of social information
producer for the purpose of seeking help and resources needed. sharing, the decision to share certain types of information may
Social interaction is experiencing a new dynamics with the ad- be incumbent on the benefits that will be derived from the sharing
vent of social media technologies. People are able to share informa- process. For example, social recommendation mechanisms like
tion such as updates about their experiences as it happens, with those used on Yahoo Answers! and Twitter are examples of how
minimal effort and time. A recent study reported that individuals users that provide information may improve their reputation
share information with their friends and the general public to among members of their social network. On the other hand, feed-
maintain a sense of connection, as well as build social capital back given on sites such as eBay and Amazon about each transac-
(Erickson, 2011). Chai et al. (Winter 2011–12) reported that the tional experience is voluntary and particularly not beneficial to the
use of blogs to share information positively correlates with the customers.
bloggers’ trust, strength of social ties, reciprocity, and gender. That Studies that have explored information sharing among individ-
study also found that offline expected social norms also persist in uals have come to the conclusion that the behavioral act of sharing
the online blogosphere. It is expected therefore that online blogs information is usually assumed to be benefit-oriented (Bock,
will be a good candidate tool for sharing sensational information. Zmud, Kim, & Lee, 2005; Constant, Kiesler, & Sproull, 1994;
The use of social media to organize campaigns that lead to Kankanhalli, Tan, & Wei, 2005; Wasko & Faraj, 2000). Social ex-
changes in political leadership in the recent Arab springs revealed change theory posits that people are assumed to evaluate the cost
some of the inherent capabilities of social media technologies and benefit of the information they are about to share before mak-
(Heverin & Zach, 2012). This has become a source of concern for ing the decision to share it with others (Blau, 1964; Emerson, 1962;
law enforcement agencies, as it calls for the need to curb possible Homans, 1958). Cost, during the social exchange process, refers to
criminal conducts perpetrated via social sites on the Internet. Law the use of resources to accomplish the aim of the exchange (Molm,
enforcement agencies are implementing policies that incorporate 1997). For instance, the time devoted to interacting with other
social media for sharing information about their activities in order individuals is time taken away from working on the next best
to actively engage the citizens that are directly and indirectly con- alternative forgone (Markus, 2001). Due to the cost associated with
cerned. For instance, the Police Force in Philadelphia in the state of the exchange of information, individuals sometimes make the
Pennsylvania, mandated officers to use Twitter to communicate decision to share based on the benefits expected from the ex-
with residents and their colleagues. This is predicated on the need change process.
to gain the trust of residents in order to identify prospective sus- Benefits expected by information providers during the ex-
pects during criminal investigations (Roy, 2012). The dynamic nat- change process have been found be intrinsic or extrinsic
ure of such information would require social media technologies (Vallerand, 1997). The act of sharing information with others has
that allow rapid information sharing such as microblogging and so- been reported to instigate a reciprocity effect on the receiver
cial networking sites. (Kankanhalli et al., 2005; Kollock, 1999; Wasko & Faraj, 2000). In
Several studies have been conducted in the healthcare domain the social context, the provision of information entitles the pro-
to understand how people use social media for health-related pur- vider to build social capital and reputation (Constant, Sproull, &
poses. Of note is a study conducted to give an updated report on Kiesler, 1996). Sharing information socially also gives an intrinsic
the use of social media in the healthcare domain. One study sought benefit to the provider by confirming their ability to provide
 B. Osatuyi / Computers in Human Behavior 29 (2013) 2622–2631 2625

information that is considered useful by the social network in tems department at a northeastern technical university. Suggested
which they belong (Constant et al., 1996). modifications were incorporated and a second pretest confirmed
Information shared on social media sites face the dual informa- understandability of the questions and instructions provided to
tion credibility problem, which relegates the benefits of sharing complete the survey before it was made available to participants.
information on those sites. A recent study reported that about The survey consists of one item that seeks to understand how
85% of journalists indicated that information on social media sites information is codified on social media sites employed in (Osatuyi,
was much less or slightly less credible than traditional media due 2012) and four items that seeks to develop an understanding of
in part to the lack of fact-checking, verification, and other reporting how four information types are being shared across five different
standards (Cision and Bates, 2009). This finding suggests the need social media technologies. The information credibility measures
to provide means of verifying information shared on social media emerged from a debriefing session after an experiment conducted
sites. In this study, the cost of sharing information is therefore to understand how users exchange information on computer med-
operationalized as the cues included in the information shared to iated technologies (Osatuyi, 2012). Respondents were provided
attract and engage the target audience, while the credibility of with the definition of the types of information on the first page
information is operationalized as the ability to verify or confirm of the instrument. This information as well as examples in the
pieces of information shared on social media sites. question statement was included in the instrument after the first
The cues (or characteristics) of information shared used in this pilot study was conducted where some respondents indicated that
study builds on a recent study that explored how individuals seek they were unclear about the different types of information as well
information on social media sites (Osatuyi, 2012). The study re- as the use of information characteristics to codify credibility. Mod-
ported five properties that characterize credibility indicators for ifications were made to the initial survey instrument to address
information shared on social media sites (Osatuyi, 2012): link to concerns such as clarifying the definitions of the types of informa-
other sources, topic of interest, embedded video and/or audio tion and the use of information characteristics to indicate credibil-
and familiarity with the post creator. Link to other sources refers ity of information shared. Upon the second revision of the
to a website address provided in the message posted for the reader instrument, the survey was administered for the study.
to obtain additional information. The topic of interest has been
identified as characteristic of the information shared that draws 4.2. Procedure
the attention of social network members to messages posted. An
interesting topic is more likely to lead to lengthy discussions com- The survey instrument was administered online via Survey-
pared to an uninteresting topic that is only discussed by the infor- Monkey. The invitation was randomly sent out to 200 potential
mation provider. Embedded video and/or embedded audio: participants via email. A link to the survey was provided in the
Information producers have been reported to embed video or audio email invitations sent to potential participants. The survey was
in their message to provide contextual perspective to the informa- open for data collection for 3 months.
tion that is shared. Embedding video and audio has been found to
increase the credibility of the entire message communicated on so- 4.3. Participants
cial media sites (Osatuyi, 2012). For instance, video postings of the
recent devastation caused by hurricane Sandy by victims provided Participants were college students in classes ranging from
better context of the situation rather than mere text messages sent freshman to senior levels. 79.8% of the participants were males,
to potential aid providers when seeking help. Lastly, familiarity and 20.2% were females. The gender ratio is indicative of the pop-
with the post creator was identified as a factor that contributes to ulation of most engineering universities such as the one in which
consuming information shared on social media sites. The last infor- this study was conducted and it is expected to have an influence
mation characteristic is not explored in this study, as it is not an on the study variables. Participants were awarded five extra points
objective measure of the credibility of the information shared on toward their final grade, in exchange for their participation in the
social media sites. study.

4.4. Data preparation and analysis

4. Research methodology
SPSS, version 20 was used to conduct all the analyses in this
The research study described in this paper used a survey instru-
study. Response frequencies were conducted, followed by a chi-
ment to gather users’ perceptions toward the use of five social
square test to explore variations in users’ preferences for different
media sites for sharing four different types of information. The re-
social media technologies for sharing different types of information
search methodology described in this study is in the domain of
with a = 0.05 as a criterion for significance.
exploratory research, similar to what Stebbins (2001) refers to as
Data for this study was collected via an online survey. There
the region of little known phenomena. This region is a combination
were a total of 122 participants that started the survey, but only
of the report of descriptive statistics and generation of relation-
114 completely answered all the questions on the survey. The re-
ships between concepts based on existing data in order to contrib-
sponse frequencies presented are those of the participants that
ute to the understanding of relevant existing prior related studies
completed each question on the survey. Chi-square test was em-
(Stebbins, 2001). This study is thus exploratory as it builds on prior
ployed to examine the association of the usage of the five social
research to investigate the types of information that people tend to
media sites explored in this study for sharing different information
share on different social media sites. The main goal of exploratory
types. Chi-square is appropriate as it estimates if two variables are
research is the production of empirically derived relationships
independent.
about the group, process, activity, or situation under study
A coding scheme, described in Table 3, was used to classify how
(Stebbins, 2001).
participants indicated the credibility of the information they share
on social media sites. For instance, a code of 1 means that the indi-
4.1. Survey instrument vidual will include a link (L) to provide additional reference to the
information shared on social media sites. Some users use multiple
The survey instrument used for this study was pretested by 4 characteristics to indicate credibility of the information they share.
faculty members and 4 graduate students in the Information Sys- For instance, code 10 is assigned to a participant that indicates that
2626 B. Osatuyi / Computers in Human Behavior 29 (2013) 2622–2631

Table 3 Table 5
Coding scheme. Participants’ credibility indicator results.

Credibility indicator Code Social media site Mean (standard deviation)

Link to other sources (L) 1 Social networking sites 8.40 (4.64)
Topic of interest (T) 2 Microblogging site 5.01 (3.91)
Embedded video (EV) 3 Wikis 4.36 (3.29)
Embedded audio (EA) 4 Forums 5.32 (4.18)
L+T 5 Blogs 5.31 (4.32)
L + EV 6
L + EA 7
T + EV 8
T + EA 9 most discussions. Discussions and inferences will be made based
EV + EA 10 on the other credibility indicators explored in this study: link to
L + T + EV 11
other sources, embedded video and embedded audio.
L + T + EA 12
T + EV + EA 13 Next to the topic of interest, link to other sources was indicated
L + T + EV + EA 14 as a means of indicating credibility of information shared on
majority (microblogging sites, wikis, forums and blogs) of the so-
cial media sites. The results indicate that embedded videos are
widely used as indicators of credibility on social networking sites.
Table 4 This observation can be attributed to the social networking sites
Response frequencies for information sharing on social media sites. that are based on video sharing such as Youtube, Blip and Vimeo.
Table 5 below illustrates the characteristics used by partici-
Information characteristics
pants to codify credibility of the information they share on five dif-
Link to other Topic Embedded Embedded Response
ferent social media sites by using the coding scheme in Table 3
sources video audio count
above. The result shows that users, on the average (mean = 8.40),
61.4% (70) 77.2% 70.2% (80) 38.6% (44) 114 tend to discuss topics that are of interest as well as embedded vid-
(88)
53.6% (60) 84.8% 25.9% (29) 16.1% (19) 114
eos in the message they share, to indicate the credibility of the
(96) information they share on social networking sites. On microblog-
71.2% (79) 81.1% 13.5% (16) 9.9% (12) 114 ging sites, online forums and online blogs, the results show that
(91) the mean value of 5.01, 5.32, and 5.31 respectively, suggesting that
58.6% (66) 85.6% 30.6% (35) 17.1% (19) 114
information producers codify the credibility of information they
(96)
56.4% (63) 88.2% 27.3% (31) 19.1% (22) 114 share on these social media sites by including a link to other
(98) sources in the message while discussing a topic of interest. Finally,
a mean value of 4.36 shows that information producers tend to
codify the credibility of information they share on wikis by embed-
ding audio and/or video in the message. Wikis are typically text
s/he would use embedded video (EV) and embedded audio (EA) to based, used primarily as a tertiary source of information, however,
validate information shared on social media sites. In the attempt to our result suggests that information producers would include
use objective measures of information credibility, familiarity with audio and video to gain the interest of their audience. This presents
the post creator is omitted from the coding scheme used in this a design opportunity to promote the use of audio and video capa-
study. bilities on wikis.

5. Results 5.2. Information sharing

The results are presented in two sections. The first set of results The next four questions (Questions 2–5), explore how users
presents the examination of how credibility of information is cod- share four different types of information—personal, sensational,
ified across different social media technologies. The analysis begins political and casual information—across five popular social media
by examining the distribution of use of information characteristics sites—social networking sites, microblogging sites, wikis, forums,
to indicate credibility of information shared across five different and blog—using a 7-point Likert response scale where 1 is ‘‘very
types of social media sites. The second set of results present infor- unlikely’’ and 7 is ‘‘very likely’’.
mation sharing on the social media technologies studied in this The response frequencies for how social media sites are used for
paper. The response frequencies of each question on the survey sharing personal or sensitive information are presented in Table 6.
are presented, followed by Pearson Chi-Square test to examine The result shows that participants are highly unlikely to share
the difference in the information characteristics used to codify information they consider personal on all of the social media sites
credibility in the message posted on different social media sites. explored in this study. This result confirms the privacy norm,
which stipulates that private things will be kept private (Johnson,
5.1. Credibility of information 1992). Considering the fact that no matter how secured the policies
are to protect information shared on social media sites, it tends to
Question 1: Select the information characteristics you use to end up in the hands of those it was not intended may be associated
indicate the credibility of the information you share on the follow- with participants’ indication of their unlikelihood to share personal
ing social media sites? (Check all that apply) information, which refutes the expected behavior stipulated by the
The result in Table 4, below shows that the most important social exchange theory. This behavior suggests that the cost of
characteristic that is used to indicate the credibility of information sharing certain types of information may influence the information
shared on all the social media sites explored in this study, is the to- producer’s decision to share it with others.
pic of discussion. This behavior is consistent across all the social Question 2: What medium are you most likely to use to share
media sites (shown in bold). This result is not the focus of analysis personal or sensitive information (e.g., health, relationship, family)
in this study, since topic of interest is typically an antecedent of on the following social media sites (Check all that apply):
 B. Osatuyi / Computers in Human Behavior 29 (2013) 2622–2631 2627

Table 6
Response frequencies for sharing personal (sensitive) information on social media sites.

Percentage (frequency) 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 Response count

Social networking 26.3% 10.5% 11.4% 5.3% 20.2% 2.6% 6.1% 100%
M = 3.68, SD = 2.19 (30) (12) (13) (6) (23) (3) (7) 114
Microblogging site 52.6% 15.8% 9.6% 0.9% 12.3% 2.6% 6.1% 100%
M = 2.35, SD = 1.91 60 18 11 1 14 3 (7) 114
Wikis 66.7% 12.3% 6.1% 3.5% 4.4% 3.5% 3.5% 100%
M = 1.89, SD = 1.66 (76) (14) (7) (4) (5) (4) (4) 114
Forums 50.4% 13.0% 10.4% 9.6% 7.8% 4.3% 4.3% 100%
M = 2.42, SD = 1.83 (58) (14) (12) (11) (9) (5) (5) 114
Blogs 52.6% 15.8% 7.9% 4.4% 11.4% 4.4% 3.5% 100%
M = 2.32, SD = 1.83 60 (18) (9) (5) (13) (5) (4) 114

Table 7
Chi-square test results: sharing personal (sensitive) information.

df = 36, N = 114 1 2 3 4 5
1 – Social networking sites –
2 – Microblogging site 72.73 (.00) –
3 – Wikis 51.39 (.05) 89.15 (.00) –
4 – Forums 68.09 (.00) 96.09 (.00) 164.79 (.00) –
5 – Blogs 50.03 (.00) 97.11 (.00) 157.46 (.00) 181.36 (.00) –

The next analysis seeks to further explore if there are differences result confirms a claim presented earlier in this paper with regards
among five social media technologies used for sharing personal to the likelihood for users to interact with different social media
information. Table 7 below shows the chi-square test of indepen- technologies based on the type of information shared. The bias
dence of users’ preference between using different social media against wikis is plausible, since they are mainly used to capture
technologies for sharing personal (or sensitive) information. The static information as illustrated in Table 2.
values in the table indicate the chi-square test value and the 2-tailed Question 3: What medium are you most likely to use to share
significance value in parenthesis with degrees of freedom, df = 36 sensational information (e.g., rapidly breaking news, sports, celeb-
and N = 114 for all the measures. For instance, the test results in col- rity gossips, fashion) on the following social media sites (Check all
umn labeled 1 in Table 7 shows that there is no statistically signifi- that apply):
cant difference in how people share personal information on social The next analysis investigates the likelihood of differences in
networking sites compared to other social media sites; microblog- how sensational information is shared on the social media sites ex-
ging sites, wikis, forums and blogs. The results also show that there plored in this study (as shown in Table 9 below). The results from
is no statistically significant difference between how personal infor- the chi-square test of independence indicate that there is no statis-
mation is shared on all social media technologies. tically significant difference in how sensational information is
A higher average of the use of social networking sites for shar- shared on social networking sites and microblogging sites, but
ing personal information, as shown in Table 6, compared to the there is a statistically significant difference in how sensational
other social media technologies confirms the observed tendency information is shared on social networking sites compared to wi-
that the propensity for people to share personal information with kis, forums and blogs. For the comparison between wikis, forums
those they consider close to them—i.e., people that belong to their and blogs, there is no statistically significant difference in how sen-
social network, with exclusive privileges such as the ability to view sational information is shared on these social media sites. This can
messages posted only to a selected group of friends. In reality how- be attributed to the static information dynamism property that
ever, friends on social networking sites are potentially connected these social media sites share as described in Table 2. Conse-
to the entire social network as a whole, which suggests that private quently, it can be inferred that information producers are more
information shared on social networking sites may not be kept pri- likely to use social networking sites and microblogging sites to
vate for long. Another motivation for sharing personal information share sensational information.
on social networking sites relates to the desire for information pro- The frequency distribution for the likelihood of sharing political
ducers to gain social status as a reward for sharing information information on social media sites is summarized in Table 10 below.
that gains readership among their target audience, which may be Participants indicated that the most likely social media technolo-
more effective on a technology that promotes dynamic information gies for sharing political information are social networking sites
exchange compared to wikis that are mainly used to archive static and microblogging sites. Social networking sites (M = 5.28,
information. The significant indifferences in how personal informa- SD = 1.91) are the top social media sites, followed by microblog-
tion is shared across the five social media technologies can be ging sites (M = 4.35, SD = 2.23), for sharing political information.
attributed to the nature in which such information is exchanged Interestingly, the results show that wikis, online forums and blogs
on those sites. For instance, sharing of health information on are highly unlikely social media technologies used to share politi-
health-related forums tend to be exclusive that requires users’ per- cal information.
mission to get to the content of the forum. Political information has been described as being dynamic, to
Table 8, shows the response frequencies for how social media the extent that it attracts discussion among a large group of people
sites are used for sharing sensational information such as rapidly over a short period of time (Osatuyi, 2012). These results suggest
breaking news, celebrity gossips and academy awards. Participants that information producers tend to share political information to
indicated that they are more likely to share sensational informa- a wider audience, for example, on social networking sites, where
tion on social networking sites, microblogging sites, online forums multiple viewpoints are more prevalent than exclusive discussion
and online blogs, but highly unlikely to share it on wikis. This boards that are only visible to a limited number of people.
2628 B. Osatuyi / Computers in Human Behavior 29 (2013) 2622–2631

Table 8
Response frequencies for sharing sensational information on social media sites.

Percentage (frequency) 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 Response count

Social networking sites 0.9% 1.8% 4.4% 2.6% 18.4% 21.1% 50.9% 100%
M = 5.96, SD = 1.42 (1) (2) (5) (3) (21) (24) (58) 114
Microblogging site 14.3% 3.6% 4.5% 6.3% 15.2% 25.0% 31.3% 100%
M = 4.91, SD = 2.23 (16) (4) (5) (8) (17) (28) (36) 114
Wikis 31.9% 18.6% 8.0% 11.5% 11.5% 8.8% 9.7% 100%
M = 3.11, SD = 2.12 (36) (21) (9) (13) (13) (10) (11) 114
Forums 14.9% 10.5% 7.0% 9.6% 29.8% 14.9% 13.2% 100%
M = 4.24, SD = 2.00 (17) (12) (8) (11) (35) (17) (15) 114
Blogs 17.7% 7.1% 6.2% 15.0% 27.4% 13.3% 13.3% 100%
M = 4.14, SD = 2.05 (20) (9) (7) (17) (32) (15) (15) 114

Table 9
Chi-square test results: sharing sensational information.

df = 36, N = 114 1 2 3 4 5
1 – Social networking –
2 – Microblogging 94.51 (.00) –
3 – Wikis 39.48 (.32) 46.26 (.12) –
4 – Forums 34.40 (.54) 45.75 (.13) 114.05 (.00) –
5 – Blogs 31.45 (.68) 69.69 (.00) 97.57 (.00) 172.77 (.00) –

Table 10
Response frequencies for sharing political information on social media sites.

Percentage (frequency) 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 Response count

Social networking sites 7.80% 5.20% 4.30% 9.60% 16.50% 20.00% 36.50% 100%
M = 5.28, SD = 1.91 (9) (6) (5) (11) (18) (23) (42) 114
Microblogging site 20.20% 7.00% 7.90% 7.90% 14.90% 22.80% 19.30% 100%
M = 4.35, SD = 2.23 (23) (8) (9) (9) (17) (26) (22) 114
Wikis 30.10% 15.90% 9.70% 12.40% 10.60% 11.50% 9.70% 100%
M = 3.24, SD = 2.14 (35) (18) (11) (14) (12) (13) (11) 114
Forums 21.90% 7.00% 10.50% 11.40% 18.40% 19.30% 11.40% 100%
M = 3.98, SD = 2.12 (25) 8 12 (13) (21) (22) (13) 114
Blogs 25.40% 6.10% 8.80% 14.00% 14.90% 18.40% 12.30% 100%
M = 3.89, SD = 2.19 (29) (7) (10) (16) (17) (21) (14) 114

Table 11
Chi-square test results: sharing political information.

df = 36, N = 114 1 2 3 4 5
1 – Social networking –
2 – Microblogging 142.40 (.00) –
3 – Wikis 41.76 (.23) 55.30 (.02) –
4 – Forums 53.59 (.03) 71.95 (.00) 149.69 (.00) –
5 – Blogs 55.27 (.02) 89.56 (.00) 118.25 (.00) 216.64 (.00) –

Question 4: What medium are you most likely to use to share on an archival medium such as wikis, as a source of objective
political information (e.g., death of Gadhafi, US 2012 presidential knowledge that presents the existing rationale, critiques and
election) on the following social media sites (Check all that apply): biases. This finding therefore validates the framework described
Table 11 below presents Pearson Chi-Square test results of the in Table 2.
relationship between users’ likelihood of sharing political informa- A summary of the response frequencies for participants’ likeli-
tion on different social media sites. The test results in the column hood of sharing casual information on social media sites is de-
labeled 1 indicates that there is a statistically significant relation- scribed in Table 12 below. The results are similar to those of
ship between how political information is shared on social net- political information, where social networking sites and microb-
working sites compared to microblogging sites, forums and blogs logging sites were indicated as the highly likely social media tech-
but not with wikis. This finding draws attention to the dual instan- nologies used for sharing casual information. Similarly, wikis,
tiation characteristic of political information. When political infor- online forums and blogs were indicated as highly unlikely social
mation is shared with the intent to create awareness on social media technologies used for sharing casual information. These re-
technologies such as social networking sites, microblogging sites, sults suggest that there are similarities in how social media tech-
blogs and forums, details are typically subjective and skewed to nologies are used to share casual and political information. A
the exposure of the author. However, political information ac- viable explanation for the similarity might be due to the intended
quired from multiple sources and vetted are typically presented audience for both types of information. Casual information is
 B. Osatuyi / Computers in Human Behavior 29 (2013) 2622–2631 2629

Table 12
Response frequencies for sharing casual information on social media sites.

Percentage (frequency) 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 Response count

Social networking sites 1.70% 0.90% 1.70% 4.30% 11.30% 15.70% 64.30% 100%
M = 6.27, SD = 1.27 (2) (1) (2) (5) (13) (18) (73) 114
Microblogging site 11.40% 2.60% 4.40% 7.00% 7.90% 25.40% 41.20% 100%
M = 5.37, SD = 2.06 (13) (3) (5) (8) (9) (29) (47) 114
Wikis 37.70% 11.40% 9.60% 16.70% 10.50% 5.30% 8.80% 100%
M = 3.00, SD = 2.05 (43) (13) (11) (19) (12) (6) (10) 114
Forums 21.90% 7.90% 8.80% 14.00% 18.40% 15.80% 13.20% 100%
M = 3.95, SD = 2.13 (25) (9) (10) (16) (21) (18) (15) 114
Blogs 23.70% 8.80% 7.00% 14.90% 17.50% 14.00% 14.00% 100%
M = 3.86, SD = 2.15 (27) (10) (8) (17) (20) (16) (16) 114

Table 13
Chi-square test results: sharing casual information.

df = 36, N = 114 1 2 3 4 5
1 – Social networking –
2 – Microblogging 109.09 (.00) –
3 – Wikis 31.20 (.70) 41.13 (.26) –
4 – Forums 58.53 (.01) 56.09 (.02) 186.17 (.00) –
5 – Blogs 45.63 (.13) 77.68 (.00) 141.74 (.00) 324.06 (.00) -

typically meant to stimulate discussions on mundane things that 6. Discussion and conclusions
do not require accurate specific details unlike political discussions
that must be well articulated and presented to convey reason be- This study reported a descriptive analysis of information shar-
hind the argument of the information producer. ing behavior of information producers on social media sites. Partic-
Question 5: What medium will you most likely to use to share ularly, this paper examined how credibility of information
casual information (e.g., interesting quote from a book or TV show, produced is codified on social media sites, with the aim of gaining
fun hangout location) on the following social media sites (Check all an understanding of how best to provide information that is useful
that apply): to information seekers. The exploratory analysis conducted in this
Table 13 below shows the Pearson Chi-Square test result of study revealed that information producers use different cues to
users’ preference between social media sites for sharing casual indicate credibility of information they share on different social
information. The test results indicate that there is no statistically media sites, providing the answer to the first research question
significant relationship in the way casual information is shared be- posed to guide this study.
tween social networking sites and wikis, v2(36, N = 114) = 31.20, To answer the second research question, a series of exploratory
p = 0.70 as well as between microblogging sites and wikis v2(36, analyses conducted revealed differences as well as similarities in
N = 114) = 41.13, p = 0.26. The consistent lack of relationship be- how social media sites are used to share different types of informa-
tween the use wikis to share casual information compared to social tion. It is noteworthy to mention the high unlikelihood indicated
networking sites and microblogging sites points to the characteris- by information producers sampled in this study to share private
tic of the information type that is typically shared on wikis. This re- information on social media sites. This result presents an alternate
sult also validates the information characteristic framework view of the finding from a recent study (Osatuyi, 2012) that shows
presented earlier in this paper. It is also noted from the results that that information seekers tend to consult social networking sites for
there is a statistically significant relationship between how casual private information. This shows that there is a need for further
information is shared on wikis, online blogs and forums. This investigation into the use of social media technologies for sharing
observation can be attributed to the dynamism of casual informa- personal information, as well as other information types, in order
tion. Online forums and blogs are exclusively created to discuss to utilize them effectively.
information that is particular to subscribed members. For instance, A difference in the use of social media technologies to share
health and wellness discussion boards used to encourage sub- information due to the type of information shared, suggests that
scribed group members to eat well and live well will contain con- there are other contextual factors that contribute to the decision
tents that are mainly related to that topic. Social networking sites to share information with social technologies. New theories may
and microblogging sites on the other hand, welcome contributions be developed and existing theories may be extended to address
from anyone to discuss a wide variety of casual information. Addi- these contextual factors that influence the sharing of information
tional research will be invaluable to explore similarities between in the computer-mediated communication context. For instance,
causal and political information types and how that may contrib- future studies will device hypotheses that extend social exchange
ute to our understanding of how best to share certain information theory to explain the propensity for sharing different types of
that may be important to target audiences. information, using social media technologies.
Given that there is gender asymmetry in the population of par- Overall, there was a consistent significant difference between
ticipants in this study, an analysis was conducted to explore gen- how social networking sites are used to share information com-
der differences in the overall information sharing behavior of pared to other social media sites. This result provides evidence to
individuals on social media sites. A chi-squared test conducted to support the claim that social media technologies are structurally
examine the association between gender and information sharing different; hence they are used differently to convey different types
behaviors showed a test statistic of 47.16, p < 0.0001, which indi- of information. But more importantly, the findings from this study
cates that there is a difference in the information sharing behavior suggest that social networking sites hold the greatest potential for
of males 82.3% compared to females 17.7%. sharing information.
2630 B. Osatuyi / Computers in Human Behavior 29 (2013) 2622–2631

Using the information characteristics framework illustrated in gies and the behavior of information sharing may be gender-
Table 2, there was a consistent relationship between the dynamism specific.
of the information shared and the social technology used. In partic-
ular, across the four information types explored in this study, the
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