Fakery as a process of negotiation: understanding the information assessment and sharing behaviours of the marginalized elderly on social media

Transcending the binary of misinformation and truth, this study proposes a new theoretical approach to comprehend fakery as a negotiation process encompassing information access, exploration and comparison, and sharing. Grounded in the theory of intersectionality, this approach enables the capturing of dynamics embodied in this process which is shaped by the intersectional forces at the individual, digital, social, and national levels. Through this approach, this study gives voice to the largely underrepresented group of low-income female elder adults in China, mapping their negotiation concerning the definition of fakery in COVID-19 at the interplay between structural constraints and agentic response. On the one hand, the intersections of cognitive declines, gender inequalities, socio-economic restrictions, and information surveillance and control, restrain their understanding of the ongoing situation to a partial landscape. On the other hand, they are engaged in the enactment of contextualized strategies to develop an increasingly critical perspective for news assessment and integrate the social and emotional needs to the decision-making processes of information-sharing.