Abstract:

Mass school shootings are events that leave consequences on the entire social fabric, therefore, as a rule, they are intensively covered by the media and have a strong echo in the digital discourse. Numerous studies have been carried out in order to try to explain such events from a sociological, psychological or criminology perspective, but also from the position of media studies. The latter works mainly analyzed the ways of media coverage and interpretation of school shootings by the media, but there are few studies that deal with disinformation that spreads on the Internet and social networks after mass shootings in schools, as well as possible ways of checking and suppressing them. In addition to the procedures of the usual fact checking services, it seems interesting to question the possibilities of using artificial intelligence (AI chat-boot) tools, having in mind the potential of machine learning, but also the ethical doubts that arise in this context. For the purposes of this paper, postgraduate students of media and communication doctoral study (also employees in an Elementary school in Croatia), designed and conducted research aiming to identify social media users reaction to the detection of misinformation, and the suitability of AI as fact checker tool of misinformation in the digital space regarding the case of mass shooting in the Belgrade Elementary School Vladimir Ribnikar in May 2023. Quantitative and qualitative descriptive methodology approach was applied. A netnography analysis was conducted on deliberate sample (N=199) of readers’ comments on Facebook of three fact – checker portals (Faktograf.hr, Istinomer. rs and Raskrinkavanje.ba) in the period from May 3 2023, to June 10 2023 along with AI chat-boots sample (n=2) (Chat GPT and Bing AI).

The following research questions were formulated:
RQ1) What is the audience's reaction to the detection of disinformation by the Fact checking service in the case of the mass shooting at the aforementioned elementary school?
RQ2) Can artificial intelligence be used as a fact checker in the case of mass shootings in elementary schools?

Obtained results of a netnography analysis indicated that the audience's reactions have mostly negative tone and show a low level of trust in both the information and the exposed disinformation. Furthermore, although there are potentially models by which artificial intelligence could be used to detect disinformation, apart from the strong ethical dilemmas raised by this issue, it is not yet sufficiently developed for the task performed by human agents in fact-checking services. Considering that research of this type is scarce, the findings could contribute to the existing literature. Although the analysis sample is relatively small and the results should be viewed at the sample level and without generalization, this paper can serve as an incentive for further reflection and research in the mentioned topic. Further, this research can serve to the empowerment of elementary school students and teachers in fighting misinformation on social media.

Keywords:

Mass shootings in elementary schools, media literacy of the audience, netnography, suppression of disinformation, AI as fact checker tool.