Study of the perception of the credibility of news on social media by the students of Taraba state university, Jalingo

Description

Abstract

Study of the perception of the credibility of news on social media by the students of Taraba state university, Jalingo. The survey was carried out to evaluate the perception of the credibility of news on social media by the students of Taraba State University Jalingo. The survey research design was adopted and a structured questionnaire was used to gather data from a sample of 222. The quantitative data generated through the questionnaire were analyzed using frequency distribution and percentages. Findings showed that Social media platforms were depended upon by the majority of the respondents for their information needs (71.8%) Majority, (60.7%) of the respondents perceive information from social media network as trustworthy but not as very trustworthy Majority of the respondents said there was expertise in handling social media news (63.1%) Majority, (63.6%) perceive social media news as objective news sources and (v) those who rated social media news as believable, were in the majority (65%). The study concludes that social media news content is credible based on the parameters of believability, trustworthiness and objectivity. Also, the credibility of social media as was established in this study lends them as alternative news sources. It is recommended among others, that social media be increasingly used to share important information, especially in disseminating official information.