NEW MEDIA AND NEWS CREDIBILITY: IMPLICATIONS TO JOURNALISM PRACTICE IN OREDO, EDO STATE, NIGERIA

ABSTRACT

This study New media and news credibility: implications on journalism practices in Oredo, Edo state Nigeria was conducted against the background that the new media have become a major source of news. This study seeks to investigate how credible is information coming from the new media.  The works of scholars who have done similar studies in this area were reviewed under the literature in chapter two. Online users have easy access to abundant sources but also run the risk of getting false information. This has prompted much academic research geared to ascertain the situation and to clarify the controversy. This credibility problem associated with social media news is of much of concern to the questions of trustworthiness, objectivity, believability and expertise input on social media content, etc., which are cardinal issues in ethics of communication. It was on this premise that this study became imperative to determine the extent to which social media users perceive the news content on social media as credible. The following issues were interrogated in the study’s objectives: (a) to determine which users’ level of dependence on new media for information needs (b) to ascertain the level to which new media users perceive new media news as trustworthy (c) to examine the level to which new media positively and negatively implicate journalism practices in Nigeria. The survey research design was adopted, and a structured questionnaire was used to gather data from a sample of 380 respondents using the Australian calculator. The quantitative data generated through the questionnaire were analyzed using frequency distribution and percentages. Findings showed that: (I) social media platforms were depended upon by majority of the respondents for their information needs (92%); ii) majority, (53%) the respondents, rate information from Social Media as minimally trustworthy but not as very trustworthy; iii) majority of the respondents thinks the New Media has affected journalism practice in Oredo L.G.A (99%) iv) majority. The study concludes that new media news content is credible based on the parameters of believability, trustworthiness and objectivity. Also, the credibility of the new media as was established in this study, lends them as alternative news sources. It is recommended among others that, the social media be increasingly used to share important information, especially in disseminating official information and that journalists in Oredo must now worry about their pursuit and acquisition of relevant technological knowledge and skills.