Main Article Content

Abstract

Social Media Platforms allow every individual to plant false information more easily. Spreading false information or fake news for political or personal gain is not a new or recent evaluation. Spreading the false information is easy but correcting the record is much harder. Past studies (Keersmaecker& Roets, 2017; Mele et al,2017; Mihailidis& Viotty, 2017; Allcott & Gentzkow, 2017: Rosset al.,1975) reveal that initial impressions in an individual is based on incorrect information. Initial impressions structure distort the processing and interpretation of new information. As a result, people are unable to interpret or re-attribute this inconsistent information. It becomes relevant for marketers to understand the role of cognitive attributes in interpretation of fake news. Digital misinformation in online social media is major threat to our society (World Economic Forum, 2017).Social Media Literacy plays critical role here. The focus of the present study is to critically evaluate the role of cognitive attributes and social media literacy in fake news interpretations through exploratory research. The findings of the study will create safe and better online social platform for all stakeholders (marketers, companies, consumers, users, distribution channel members etc) thereby resulting into stronger marketing eco-system along with improved customer relationship management outcomes.

Article Details