This study explores how the public's belief in false rumors about Middle East Respiratory Syndrome that spread across South Korea related to their accuracy-oriented information seeking as well as the moderating effects of people's reasons for using social networking services (SNS). The survey results show that perceived credibility of false rumors did not affect accuracy-oriented information seeking. However, a significant result was shown in the moderating effect, such that SNS informational dependency interacted with false rumor credibility on accuracy-oriented information seeking. Overall, this study specifically identifies and discusses differences in SNS dependency and accuracy-oriented information seeking in the context of rumor communication to examine the construction of an informed public. Theoretical contributions of this study are discussed. T information (Fedor et al., 1992; Wilson, 1999) , whereas other studies assert that high credibility of the received messages prompts information seeking activities (Ho and Niederdeppe, 2008; Hou and Shim, 2010) . Based on this, this study raises the key question: How does the perceived credibility of SNS rumors motivate people to seek additional accurate information during the crisis situation? This study further aims to examine the moderating role of general SNS dependency, which is developed from media system dependency theory (Ball-Rokeach and DeFleur, 1976) , in the relationship between credibility of rumors and information seeking. Although previous studies revealed that media dependency and credibility are closely linked to each other (Jackob, 2010; Johnson and Kaye, 2004; Perlmutter and Schoen, 2007) , no studies have empirically tested the relationship in the context of rumors, particularly with a focus on Web 2.0 era to our knowledge. However, the extent to which people depend on SNS and their different reasons for using these services must be considered, given that today's rumors are largely disseminated through SNSs including Facebook, Twitter, and other online messaging services (Doerr et al., 2012) . Examining this issue can provide a footstep in the rumor study by answering how people's different dependencies on SNS function in the accuracy-oriented information seeking of false messages. The main purpose of study is to examine the relationship between the credibility of false rumor and accuracy-oriented information seeking, and how different patterns of SNS dependency affects this linkage. Many studies have been conducted on information seeking in the aftermath of adverse events (e.g., Spence et al., 2005) , lending support to the significance of the current paper, which analyzes the public's accuracy-oriented information-seeking behaviors after Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS) occurred in South Korea in 2015. We expect that the findings from this research will contribute to better understanding of the interactions between credibility of false rumors and SNS dependency on accuracy-oriented information seeking in the context of rumor communication. Exploring the mechanisms underlying the information seeking, in turn, can help curb the detrimental impact of the false rumors during hazard situations. The current research can be a groundwork for seeking out the relationship between false rumors beliefs, SNS dependency, and information seeking behaviors under risky situations. Furthermore, by differentiating the meaning of information seeking with accuracy-orientated information seeking, this research can open the venue to develop discussions on information seeking.
Output: Informed public against false rumor in the social media era: Focusing on social media dependency