News sharing behaviour of students on social media

Abstract

The reception of news and information is diverse and has been evolving. There has been a rapid alteration in the news environment and news consumption practices. The society is moving from the conventional news cycle which is controlled by journalism professionals to a more composite information cycle that integrates ordinary people within its processes. Social media has been increasingly used to gather and share news stories from mainstream news websites. Studies have found young people who are tech savvy, especially, students to be particularly interested in exploring the media options that come along with technology. In order for the traditional news media to understand how to better appeal to young people, studies have recommended that, attention must be given to how young people value and use news in different ways. While research on online news sharing abounds, most of the research to date has not focused on the attitudes and behaviour of users of social media. This study, therefore, investigates the case of news sharing practices on Facebook and WhatsApp of students of University of Education, Winneba (UEW). It investigates the types of news stories students of UEW share on social media; examines their motivations for sharing news stories and explores how students evaluate the credibility of the news stories they share. Employing the Uses and Gratifications (UG) and the Epistemology of Testimony theories, the study through interviews and focus group discussions analysed data from purposively selected students from the School of Communication and Media Studies of UEW. The findings indicated that, the participants particularly share entertainment/celebrity, politics, crime, sports and local/campus news. The analysed data further revealed that, entertainment and socialisation are the most dominant motivations of participants for sharing news on social media. The study concludes that, news stories shared on Facebook and WhatsApp are predominantly ‘soft’ news due to their virality and the participants aim to relax, release tension and interact with others. Also, the study concludes that participants employ heuristics like assessing the source of news stories, confirming from other independent sources, relying on reasoning and presentation when analysing the credibility of news stories as they prefer verification techniques that require the least time and mental effort. An interesting finding of the study is the discovery of the flaming news type which is now popular with young people in Ghana.