Published Article

ABSTRACT

Due to concern over misinformation, especially on social media, there is a need to improve the public’s media literacy. This present research studies the news literacy in five states in Nigeria: Imo, Ondo, Rivers, Abuja, and Enugu. The focus is on knowledge about news production. The aim is to determine the level of knowledge about news production, to find out if news literacy is positively associated with paying attention to certain news quality indicators on social media, and to determine if news on social media is worth their time. The survey method was used for the study. It was discovered that people with higher news literacy are more likely to include social media in their news collection, but not as their only or main source of news. It was also discovered that the news brand, headline, accompanying picture, and the person who shared the news serve as indicators of news quality on social media that are positively associated with news literacy. Greater news literacy is negatively associated with paying attention to the number of shares, likes, and comments in all states. It was found that increasing people’s news literacy might likely change the way they use social media for news, as well as their understanding that social media can be a useful way of staying informed but is unlikely to become their primary source of news, especially for those who know more about how the news is made. When deciding whether news on social media is going to be worth their time, those with higher literacy look out for quality cues rather than popularity cues. This is an indicator that news literacy programmes could usefully focus on teaching people how the news is made and that social networks could improve the quality of information they circulate by increasing the prominence of some indicators over others.

KEYWORDS: News, Social Media, News Literacy, Cues, Nigeria