Jieun Shin hopes her research into how news and misinformation spreads – and how the information architecture influences those who produce both – will empower the public and policymakers to discuss the issue and make a healthy media ecosystem.

The College's 2023 Researcher of the Year worked as a journalist for the Chosun Daily, the largest news outlet in South Korea, for six years at a time when the media industry was being transformed.

In a country known for its advanced technology and sophisticated information users, the newspaper had to constantly negotiate with digital platforms, that country’s versions of Google and Facebook, on how to make its news available and how much it was worth.

“We realized social media or digital platform search engines had overwhelming power compared to the content creator, including journalists and the news media,” she said. “They could set rules for the content information ecosystem. I had to learn the dynamics of the digital landscape and the relationship between publishers and platforms and consumers.”

That background made her want to delve into the arena as a researcher. She quickly realized that distribution depends on how the information architecture is designed.

She learned that “all these cat videos, conspiracy theories and rage bait, all this information that has a low civic value and is untrue, spreads well.”

The reason? “Social media companies incentivize them with retweet buttons, shares, likes. It visibly shows the popularity of the content,” Shin said. “Producers are conscious of the metrics. The important thing is we know other people know. So, this meta consciousness influences all of us. Social media design the architecture in terms of navigating and shaping the information flow.”

Although consumers and publishers have complained about algorithms that incentivize such content, questioning the “civic value” in it, the social media companies have the upper hand and need to be more responsible for curbing this information, she said.

But the social media companies and digital platforms think the news media are troublemakers who don’t help them increase their user base, Shin said.

“It’s not really helpful for the profit-oriented mindset. I can see a growing movement where these platform companies want to divorce news publishers. It’s almost like ‘I don’t need you guys.’”

Shin said she wants to empower consumers by providing them with knowledge and digital media literacy skills.

“All these dynamics can be common sense to some people who have a high digital literacy. But some consumers, including some in the older population, have low digital media literacy skills, are very vulnerable and can be manipulated. The information flow directed to them can be misinformation and false information,” she said.

 At a higher level, Shin hopes these findings can be discussed with policymakers and the public so they can monitor what’s happening to news and information that “really helps democracy and to inform citizens.” 

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