Influence of News-Finds-Me Perception on accuracy, factuality and relevance assessment. Case study of news item on climate change

Abstract

This paper analyses the effect of ‘News-Finds- Me' Perception on the user's assessment of a news item on climate change, both directly and indirectly through news-sharing habits, news-consumption habits, uses and gratifications on social media sites, prior knowledge and attitudes regarding the decision to share said news item. Ninety-six Spanish university students took a survey and were asked to read and rate the quality of a news item on climate change, then to indicate whether they would share that news item on social media. The results show that students with a higher news-finds-me perception tended to rate accuracy and factuality more highly than students with a lower news-finds-me perception. However,