Individuals' Habits of Trust and Verification in Social Media News and their Literacy

Abstract

In this study, individuals' trust and verification of social media news and their digital literacy were examined according to the variables of gender, educational status and duration of social media engagement. 174 people participated in the study, which was designed with a cross-sectional scanning design. The results of t-test, ANOVA and Kruskall Wallis-H analysis revealed that gender made a significant difference in digital literacy, institutional and individual trust scores and that educational status produced the same effect in institutional and individual trust scores. According to the findings of the correlation analysis, while the duration of social media connections did not cause a significant difference in any of the variables.In addition, while the factors of trusting and verifying were related to each other at different levels, digital literacy was only associated with verifying.