THE ROLE OF PERCEIVED AUTHORITY OVER ONLINE MISINFORMATION CORRECTION AMONG FIRST TIME VOTERS IN SINGAPORE

Abstract

The perils of fake news in society is not a new phenomenon. To mitigate the adverse effects of falsehood, Singapore is one of several countries to develop its law to regulate falsehood. Since the release of the Protection of Falsehood and Manipulation Act (POFMA) in October 2019, its role in society has yet to be studied. The study employed the Elaboration Likelihood Model (ELM) as a theoretical framework to analyze first-time voters' cognitive processes when they assess corrected information. Findings from the literature review revealed that partisanship, filter bubbles, and Third Person Effect (TPE) impact the effectiveness of correcting fake news in society. The context of COVID-19 and Singapore General Election 2020 will be used as a case study to analyze Singaporean first-time voters' cognitive processes. A focus group discussion conducted on Zoom with 30 first-time Singaporean voters found six main factors that impacted sources of authority (like POFMA) on how first-time voters process corrected information. They are source credibility, argument quality, tone, personal experiences, trust in spokesperson, and the sentiments of POFMA. The study also found that partisanship plays a critical role in developing sentiments of POFMA among participants. The sentiments have implications on the role of POFMA in mitigating falsehood in Singapore. The impact of fake news in society determines the justification of sources of authority like POFMA. This in turns influences the believability of POFMA corrected information. The findings have both theoretical implications to ELM as well as practical implications to POFMA as a source of authority in regulating falsehood in Singapore. Future research direction includes using the influential factors found from this study to develop quantitative research in order to generalize it to a broader audience.