Social media and its credibility as a source of news

Abstract

This study is an investigation into social media as sources of news and the question of credibility. Its advent and huge patronage daily by those who forage for news and consumers have generated a lot of concern for either its source credibility or medium credibility of this social media platform. However, we will beam our searchlight on medium credibility, using 150 students and lecturers of the Department of Mass Communication, University of Calabar, Unical, and Cross River University of Technology, Crutech, Nigeria. The survey method and questionnaire were used to gather data, which was collated, analyzed and presented in tables, yielding related percentages. The theoretical frame work adopted is the Technological Determinism theory. The theory is apt for this study as it relates to Lievrouw and Livingstone (2006) explanation about the theory’s belief that technologies have an overwhelming power to drive human actions and social change. The findings, among others show that social media have attracted more patronage and have become a potent tool to gather news sources and stories with less difficulty, enhancing medium credibility. We therefore recommend for its continuous use by people who source for news.

Keywords: Social media, medium credibility, source credibility