Professor Warns Gen Z About News Found on Social Media
Social media is a prime factor in the spread of misinformation and disinformation, according to a Claflin University professor.
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Orangeburg; South Carolina — Social media is a prime factor in the spread of misinformation and disinformation. In fact, nearly 4,800 fake Facebook accounts were deactivated by Meta Platforms Inc. after an investigation revealed the true intent of the accounts — divide and disinform.
According to a Gen Z misinformation and news literacy survey taken in Orangeburg, South Carolina, 77% of the 101 respondents get their news from social media.
Dr. Luis Almeida, Chair of the Department of Mass Communications and professor at Claflin University, said people should beware of propaganda on social media.
“Be very careful with news that deal with war, politics and elections. Those areas often involve large sums of money. Whenever you have a lot of money on the line, there is prone to be high quantities of fake news,” he said.
The survey also revealed Instagram and TikTok as Gen Z’s top news outlets.
Anyone can create content and present it as news, “some form of regulation needs to exist,” Almeida said.
He says the “most obvious danger” is that people may not be able to discern between “what is factual and what is fiction.”
“A degree of research needs to be done,” Almeida said.
The professor recommends that people do three things to verify news:
- Determine how neutral the article is.
- Check the credibility of the source.
- Look at the data.
“You can find this out by doing a simple Google search,” he said.
“Don't trust what is written without looking at the data,” he said.
He also suggests to “go to multiple media outlets, international and national to confirm news.”
Although social media is convenient and accessible, it is not intended for news, Almeida said.
“It’s part of how the Gen Z population grew up, that’s [social media] where the kids live these days. It's much more convenient to go to social media and look for information. I wish that the Gen Z population would use social media for what it is intended for, which is to communicate or socialize with others,” he said.
“The role of a journalist is to present the news and then the population would decide whether that news is one way or not. We have citizen journalists doing this kind of work and we don't know what agenda they have,” Almeida said.
“Let journalists be journalists and spectators be spectators.”
Tyuanna Williams (she/her/hers) is a senior mass communications major at Claflin University. She is a 2023 Poynter and Google News Initiative Misinformation Student Fellow for YR Media. Follow her on X: @tyuannasw.
Edited by NaTyshca Pickett