Socioscientific Perspectives on ‘Fake News’ in the Era of Social Media among Generation Z Filipinos

Abstract

Abstract – In the era of the society where the platform of connectivity and sharing of information is the social media, perspectives on authentic information, digitized rumor spreading, misinformation and disinformation becomes more alarming, relevant and relative. This exploratory research design elicited an understanding of the socioscientific perspectives among the generation Z Filipino students about fake news proliferating in the social media. There were thirty – eight (n=38) freshmen college students from a private university in Metro Manila who participated. This study used an open access technology on word cloud, open – ended questionnaire and focus group discussions to gather the data and qualitatively analyzed using coded scheme. The results showed that sources of information, purpose, relevance of the article, accuracy, precision, intended receiver, social media user engagement and user characteristics were assumed to be the factors in their metrics for determining fake news. From the focus group discussion and on the participants’ answers on the open – ended questionnaire, there were 7 coded themes on their perspectives on fake news. An ontological quadrants showing the participants’ socio scientific perspective were drawn. Majority of the participants also agrees that social media becomes an instrument of lies, deception and rumors. Further, it can be noted in the results that the participants have personal metrics in determining fake news. Lastly, this study provides a deeper understanding from the different literature in neuroscience on the neural development of adolescents, cognitive control and their developmental sensitivities to social media use.