Paul Mena

Instagram continues to be one of the fastest growing social networks and currently has more than one billion users. While Instagram has not been a focus of investigations into misinformation, it has not been immune to bad actors. And the nature of the Instagram platform, for example the inability to…

University of Florida College of Journalism and Communications Telecommunication Professor Sylvia Chan-Olmsted, Paul Mena, Ph.D. 2019 and Danielle Barbe are the co-authors of Misinformation on Instagram: The Impact of Trusted Endorsement on Message Credibility” published in Social Media + Society on June 24. In the article, the authors explore how…

In the era of “fake news” and “alternative facts,” it has become increasingly difficult to decipher fact from fiction on social media sites. As a result, warning labels much like those first witnessed on cigarette packages or toxic chemicals are appearing online in the hopes of curbing the dissemination of…

Paul Mena, a University of Florida College of Journalism and Communications doctoral student, is the author of “Principles and Boundaries of Fact-Checking: Journalists’ Perceptions” published in Journalism Practice on Nov. 16. Mena reports on the outcome of his study featuring a survey examining journalists’ perceptions of fact-checking. The results showed…

By Paul Mena Fake news is nothing new. Discussions about “fake news” can be traced back for more than a century. However, it is clear that after the shocking rise of false news stories on social media during the 2016 U.S. presidential election, there has been a growing concern about…

University of Florida College of Journalism and Communications doctoral student Paul Mena will join a panel of educators for a MediaShift Twitter conversation on June 28 at 1 p.m. The discussion will focus on what steps educators are taking now to inform, prepare and inspire the next generation of journalists…