Usable News Authentication: How the Presentation and Location of Cryptographic Information Impacts the Usability of Provenance Information and Perceptions of News Articles

Errol Francis II, Catherine Barwulor, Ayana Monroe, Kediel O Morales, Samya Potlapalli, Kimberly Brown, Julia Jose, Emily Sidnam-Mauch, Susan McGregor, Kelly Caine

Abstract:

Cryptographic tools for authenticating the provenance of webbased information are a promising approach to increasing trust in
online news and information. However, making these tools’ technical assurances sufciently usable for news consumers is essential
to realizing their potential. We conduct an online study with 160
participants to investigate how the presentation (visual vs. textual)
and location (on a news article page or a third-party site) of the
provenance information afects news consumers’ perception of the
content’s credibility and trustworthiness, as well as the usability
of the tool itself. We fnd that although the visual presentation of
provenance information is more challenging to adopt than its textbased counterpart, this approach leads its users to put more faith in
the credibility and trustworthiness of digital news, especially when
situated internally to the news article.