Info Famine to Info Feast: How People in Myanmar Identify Credible Sources

• In Event: Poster Session: Information Technology and Politics

Abstract

In 2012 the Myanmar government abolished its censorship board and shifted from overt control to more subtle media restriction. Over the next two years, the price of a SIM card dropped from thousands of dollars to one dollar, and people in Myanmar were able to access Facebook without additional charges due to zero-rating. Facebook became a primary source of information for the growing number of people with internet access. These changes, in effect, opened a Pandora’s Box of free speech in the previously cloistered information environment. How do people who have been primed to distrust media because of government interference learn to trust the plethora of sources available online? More importantly, how do they decipher fake news from credible sources? To answer these questions, we analyze interviews of Facebook users and nonusers in Myanmar to assess how they identify trustworthy sources in this new mediascape. The people we interviewed for the most part were more trusting of local media sources—even those controlled by the government—than international sources.

Authors

• Jenifer Whitten-Woodring, University of Massachusetts, Lowell

• Catherine Abou-Khalil

• Emelia Misail