The Importance of Sharing on Social Media

What is more important to you when you read a news story on social media: the news agency or reporter who actually wrote the story or the person who shares it?
当你在社交媒体上阅读新闻时，对你而言更重要的是新闻机构、写稿的记者还是分享这条新闻的人？
A new study has found that many Americans are more likely to believe information shared by someone they trust. The source of the information is not as important to them.
一项新的研究发现，很多美国人更倾向于相信他们信任的人所分享的信息。信息来源对他们来说并不重要。

Survey Results
调查结果

In 2016, the Media Insight Project did a survey about trust and news on the social media service Facebook. It found that two-thirds of Facebook-using Americans said their trust in a news source had an important effect on their belief of the information.
2016年，媒体洞察项目（Media Insight Project）在社交媒体网站Facebook上做了一项关于信任和新闻的调查。据发现，Facebook网站2/3的美国用户表示，他们信赖新闻来源，这对他们对信息的信心有重要影响。

Only 48 percent said their trust in the person sharing a story had an important effect on how they much trusted that information.
只有48%的用户表示，他们信赖新闻分享者，这对他们对该信息的信任度有重要影响。

The Media Insight Project decided to set up an experiment to see if these findings were correct.
媒体洞察项目决定设立一个实验来检查这些发现是否正确。

Experiment results: Americans more influenced by sharer
实验结果：美国人更多地受到分享者的影响

The results of the experiment were different from those in the 2016 survey.
这项实验的结果同2016年调查的结果不同。

The experiment found that a trusted sharer has more of an effect than a reputable media source. In other words, people were more likely to believe news shared by someone they trusted.
实验发现，可信的分享者比信誉良好的媒体来源更具影响力。换句话说，人们更倾向于相信他们信任的人分享的信息。

Many of those questioned did not even remember the source after seeing a Facebook-style post.
很多被调查者在查看Facebook风格的帖子后，甚至都没记住来源。

"If there's somebody I like and agree with, they can have a big influence not only in what I look at, but in whether I believe it or not. I trust them and I convey that trust to the news that they share," said Tom Rosenstiel, executive director of the American Press Institute.
美国新闻研究所执行董事汤姆·罗森斯蒂尔（Tom Rosenstiel）表示：“如果我喜欢或赞同某个人，他们不仅对我看到的内容有很大影响，还对我是否相信这些内容有重大影响。我信任他们，并且表现出对他们所分享信息的信任。”

Survey organizers write that "people make little distinction between known and unknown (even made-up) sources when it comes to trusting and sharing news."
调查组织者写道，“在信任和分享新闻方面，人们很少区分已知或未知来源。”

Implications
影响

The writers say the findings are important for members of the news media, news literacy activists, and social media networks.
作者表示，这些发现对新闻媒体、新闻素养活跃人士以及社交媒体网络的成员来说都很重要。

There has been a lot of talk recently about "fake news" -- misinformation spread through social media and news media organizations.
最近经常谈到“假新闻”，也就是通过社交媒体和新闻媒体组织传播的假消息。

Facebook is now taking steps to call attention to fake news stories.
Facebook目前正在采取措施提请人们对假新闻的注意。

"It's important we give people the tools to make smart decisions about content," said Justin Osofsky, Facebook's vice president of global operations and media partnerships.
Facebook全球运营和媒体合作副总裁贾斯汀·奥索夫斯基(Justin Osofsky)表示，“重要的是我们要给用户提供对内容做出明智抉择的工具。”
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Critics have suggested that Facebook's decision to identify stories as false, instead of removing them from its website, shows the service is not doing enough.
反对者认为，Facebook将新闻定义为虚假新闻，而不是将其从网站删除的决定，表明该服务做得还不够。

The project's findings show that news organizations should pay attention to how stories spread through social media. They might even want to consider sharing news by competitors in the hope they will do the same, said Rosenstiel.
该项目的调查结果表明，新闻机构应该关注新闻如何在社交媒体上传播。奥索夫斯基表示，他们甚至可能想要考虑分享竞争对手的信息，并希望对方也这样做。

Readers "are not just your audience anymore," he said. "They're your ambassadors."
他说，读者不仅仅是你的观众，还是你的使臣。