PERCEPTION OF SOCIAL MEDIA AS NEWS SOURCES AMONG RESIDENTS OF SOUTH-EAST NIGERIA

Abstract

The study explored the perception of South-East residents regarding social media usage as news sources. The perception theory and the Technology Acceptance Model provided explanations for the study.The survey research method was used for the investigation while the questionnaire helped as the data collection instrument. Residents of South-East Nigeria constituted the population of the study from where 400 sample size was drawn using the Creative Research Systems online sample size calculator. The multi-stage sampling technique was used while tables and simple percentages were deployed to present and analyse the collected data. Based on the analysis of data, findings among others showed that residents of South-East Nigeria do not perceive the social media platforms as credible sources of news. Accordingly, the researcher recommends that proper checks should be done to ascertain the authenticity of the news got via social media.