Infodemic During a Pandemic: Media Information Literacy and Other Communication Factors Related to (Mis)Information Sharing on COVID19 among Graduate Students in an Open University

Abstract

Underpinned by the Theory of Reasoned Action (TRA) by Ajzen and Fishbein, an online survey was conducted from October 25, 2021, to February 28, 2022, through Google Forms with 107 online students. Data were analyzed using descriptive statistics and Spearman’s correlation for the relationship of variables.

The prevalent social media used by the respondents is Facebook, mostly for 6-15 hours a day. They used social media to seek information/news, entertain themselves, share information/news, gain knowledge, and also pass time.

While the students perceive themselves to have high online skills, favorable beliefs and attitude toward information verification, high media literacy, perceived self-efficacy in verifying information, and likely intention to not share fake information, they have actually shared fake information on Covid 19 on social media. In the past months, they have shared the news on social media without verifying the source, and they have ‘very frequently’ been told by their networks that they have shared fake news. They have shared fake news because it was easy to retrieve and share information online, they were motivated to influence others’ opinions, they desired to establish connections, they were dealing with social media fatigue, and they wanted to join the bandwagon.

Behavior of sharing misinformation on Covid 19 was correlated with media and information literacy such as the literacy in access and retrieval and the literacy in evaluation and understanding. Only the media literacy variables are correlated with behavior. Hence, overall, media and information literacy can be considered to be associated with fake news sharing on social media. To prevent or minimize the spread of misinformation on Covid 19, these should be strengthened: media information literacy, education on fake news sharing, and media messages that will educate people on the accuracy of information.