A STUDY OF FAKE NEWS IN SOCIAL MEDIA: DELTA STATE UNIVERSITY STUDENTS AS AN INVESTIGATION

ABSTRACT: The study examines the study of fake news on the social media by university students. The study based its scope on Delta State University. The study was anchored on the Use and Gratification theory of mass communication. The study adopted the descriptive survey design in data collection and questionnaire was administered to one hundred and sixty-three respondents who formed that sample size. The technique used to arrive at one hundred and sixty respondents was the conveniently sampling technique. The study concluded that students think that fake news is been posted by irresponsibly people as students assumed that social media increased the rate of fake news and they are not happy with the trend of things and it also indicated that student think that fake news on social media is the work of blackmailers as they believed that every information from social media is fake and they will never believe information from social media. The study recommended that students knew about fake news but they do not realized it on time as they consume that fake news and share to others. Therefore, it is important for NGOs and media organizations to start campaign against fake news on social media to discourage posters and increase the knowledge of young adults about the dynamics of fake news and students and young adult should always verify the source and the content of information received on social media to help them discover whether they are fake news or relating to fake news.