Comparison of student news sharing in the Czech Republic and South Africa

Abstract

Our article is focusing on the spread of fake news and social news in general. Our article answers the following research questions: How do students in the Czech Republic and the RSA differ in terms of sharing messages on social media and perceptions of safety on social media? Which students share more and which students tend to share less? How much do students trust the news from? Inspired by the survey from the University of KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa, we have in the autumn of 2020 conducted a survey at the Prague University of Economics and Business on the willingness to share news on social networks. The survey had 452 respondents, not all of which were students. Although the respondents, on the one hand, claimed they do not share messages they are not convinced are truthful, a sufficient number of likes or level of interestingness of the message often persuade them to do the opposite. In this paper, we compare the responses to see which students share more and which share less, which trust social media news more, and which vet their sources more - or whether they are on the same page on these issues.