Audiences' Choice of Sources and Verification of News: Do Age and Educational Level Matter in Ghana?
Abstract
Today's news media landscape exposes audiences to multi-faceted media choices. Using an audience-centered approach in a cross-sectional survey of 419 respondents, we examined the audience's choice of news sources and their assessment of media credibility and verification of news as determined by the demographic factors of age and educational level. The results indicate that mainstream news media outlets are generally more popular than social media, but the latter has more appeal among younger people. While audiences' age and education count in selecting the most reliable news outlets, the different age brackets generally have similar tendencies to validate the news they receive from their most reliable sources. However, persons with higher levels of education are more likely to validate news than those with lower levels of education. Thus, we discuss the implications of our findings on fake news and misinformation for young people.
Keywords:
audience
validation of news
traditional media
demographic characteristics
social media
news-democracy
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