An exploratory study reflects on whether citizens can be considered “responsible” in their online news behavior when exposed to harmful content, fake news, and hate speech.
It aims to position news literacy as a mediating factor in fostering civic responsibility by investigating its role in improving young people’s online news experiences and preparing them to deal with harmful content.
News literacy is conceptualized as a multi-structural construct composed of motivation, knowledge, and skills. Using a mixed-methods approach, focus group discussions and survey data were combined to examine youths’ online news experiences and assess their levels of news literacy. Youth samples from Egypt and Spain were the empirical basis of the research, allowing for a comparative analysis.
Results reveal a positive correlation between news literacy and the ability to identify fake news and hate speech, higher engagement with news, greater concern for content accuracy before sharing, and stronger motivation to seek news.
At the same time, respondents from both countries expressed negative perceptions of professional news media, citing concerns that news organizations are not adequately fulfilling their role as it should be.
Learn more about this study here: https://doi.org/10.3916/C74-2023-06
Reference
Samy-Tayie, S., Tejedor, S., & Pulido, C. (2023). News literacy and online news between Egyptian and Spanish youth: Fake news, hate speech and trust in the media. Comunicar, 30(74), 69–81