Introduction

As engagement with social media has become a dominant information acquisition and dissemination experience, the nature of the collection, production, and consumption of information has also changed. One of the most significant changes is the lowering of cost and technological barriers for sharing knowledge or opinions. User generated content dominates social media. This challenges traditional methods of collecting, disseminating and evaluating information. As much of the information exchanged on social media is often created or vetted by individuals or corporations whose identities, motives, or abilities are poorly or often simply unknown, we need new tools, theories, and practical strategies for evaluating the quality of the content and the credibility of its authors. Modelling the provenance and impact of authorship on social media is of crucial importance for explaining the emergence and impact of human motivations on social media content generation. Research on presenting, visualizing and explaining the social context of any given user in a social medium information exchange is equally important. In brief, researchers and practitioners need to create theories, methods and tools that make the authorship and dissemination process more transparent. We need new ways to understand at a glance, who, in what context, and if possible why creates or disseminates specific units of content.