Information Sharing and Evaluation as Determinants of Spread of Fake News on Social Media among Nigerian Youths: Experience from COVID-19 Pandemic

Abstract

This study examined social media information sharing and evaluation as determinants of fake news spread among Nigerian youths with empirical evidence from COVID-19.  The study adopted descriptive survey method. The Web-based questionnaire (Google docs) was used in collecting data for the study. The total responses for the study are 278, which represents the sample size. The finding of the study revealed that most Nigerians used Facebook, Twitter, WhatsApp, and Instagram to share information on COVID-19. However, only few Nigerians used Linkedln and other types of social media to share information on COVID-19. It was also found out that building relationship with social media communities, enjoyment and risk taking, and political inclination influence sharing behaviour of Nigerians during the COVID-19. Results show that social media handle/page found sharing of fake news on COVID-19 especially on the treatment, vaccines numbers of cases and symptoms. The study concludes that there is positive significant relationship between information sharing and information evaluation on COVID-19 among Nigerians. It was recommended that information sharing evaluation of Nigerians should be in line with standard practice of relevance, accuracy, purpose, currency and authority.

URL: http://ijkcdt.net/xml/26787/26787.pdf