Survey examination of how an anonymous source gains credibility in the political discourse: karametwatan Twitter account as an example.

摘要

The present study investigated how anonymous sources on Twitter can gain credibility by Twitter users. The researcher examined karametwatan Twitter account as an example of anonymous sources. A formulated theory, Anonymous Leaders was employed in order to test its assumptions. The main purpose of this study is to figure out how Kuwaiti Twitter users trust karametwatan and the role of opposition leaders who were advocates of this account toward attributing this account as credible. A total of 650 Kuwaiti Twitter users participated in this study. The results of this study showed that karametwatan's followers trust its tweets and attribute it as credible. Opposition leaders played a fundamental role in influencing their followers to follow karametwatan and participate in its marches. A significant difference found between karametwatan's followers. Those who have less than 1000 followers were dependent on others to follow karametwatan while those with 1000 followers or more tend to depend on themselves in following this account. Further, karametwatan's followers trust and attribute this account and opposition leaders as credible more than Kuwait government.