An Exploratory Study on The Trust of Information in Social Media

This study examined the level of trust of information on social media. Specifically, I investigated the factors of performance expectancy with information-seeking motives that appear to influence the level of trust of information on various social network sites. This study utilized the following theoretical models: elaboration likelihood model (ELM), the uses and gratifications theory (UGT), the unified theory of acceptance and use of technology model (UTAUT), the consumption value theory (CVT), and the Stimulus-Organism-Response (SOR) Model to build a conceptual research framework for an exploratory study. The research investigated the extent to which information quality and source credibility influence the level of trust of information by visitors to the social network sites. The inductive content analysis on 189 respondents’ responses carefully addressed the proposed research questions and then further developed a comprehensive framework. The findings of this study contribute to the current research stream on information quality, fake news, and IT adoption as they relate to social media.