Media literacy and the credibility evaluation of social media information: students’ use of Instagram, WhatsApp and Telegram
| DOI | https://doi.org/10.1108/GKMC-02-2021-0029 |
| Published date | 04 October 2021 |
| Date | 04 October 2021 |
| Pages | 413-431 |
| Author | Ali Shabani,Hamid Keshavarz |
Media literacy and the credibility
evaluation of social media
information: students’use of
Instagram, WhatsApp and
Telegram
Ali Shabani
Department of Information Science and Knowledge, Faculty of Management,
University of Tehran, Tehran, Iran, and
Hamid Keshavarz
Laboratory for Social and Cognitive Informatics,
National Research University Higher School of Economics, St. Petersburg, Russia
Abstract
Purpose –Due to their unique characteristicsin terms of information type, quantity and exchange, social
media are regarded as a challenging information resource that makes credibility evaluation a more
complicated behavior.This study aims to investigate the role of media literacy in the credibility evaluation of
social mediainformation among students as a major communityof user groups.
Design/methodology/approach –The study tried to explorewhether or not the three popular platforms
of WhatsApp, Instagram and Telegram with their unique features, show a significant difference in the
credibility evaluation among a sample of 150 studentsatthe Shahid Beheshti University, Tehran, Iran.By
administrating two validated measures related to the two main variables, data gathered were analyzed
through the partialleast-squares (PLS) method using the software SmartPLS.
Findings –Convergent and discriminant validities, as well as model fit indices, showed the reliability of the
conceptual model at the 99% confidence level. Moreover, path analysis demonstrated that media literacy could
affect all components of the credibility evaluation, except for currency evaluation. Overall, media literacy had less
impact on evaluating information sources and information credibility compared to information presentation.
Further analysis showed no significant difference in credibility evaluation with respect to the application used.
Originality/value –There appears a crucialneed for the students to be skilled more in evaluatingcontent
and sourcewithout which their decision-making might be negativelyaffected.
Keywords Social media, Media literacy, Social media information, Information evaluation skills,
Online information behavior, Online information credibility
Paper type Research paper
1. Introduction
Over the past decade, socialmedia have dramatically changed how information is produced,
used and shared. Currently, social media have emerged as one of the dominant
communication mechanisms by which people communicate and work. Social media are
highly accessible everywhere and almostinall walks of life (Zhang et al., 2020;Hong, 2015).
Therefore, the process of producing,using and sharing ideas and information through social
media within organizations and among the people is a fast-growing fashion (Kwahk and
Park, 2016). Social media have changed human communications in the sense that access to
Social media
information
413
Received22 February 2021
Revised14 May 2021
Accepted5 June 2021
GlobalKnowledge, Memory and
Communication
Vol.71 No. 6/7, 2022
pp. 413-431
© Emerald Publishing Limited
2514-9342
DOI 10.1108/GKMC-02-2021-0029
The current issue and full text archive of this journal is available on Emerald Insight at:
https://www.emerald.com/insight/2514-9342.htm
and spreading information is far higher than before. Due to their fast and easy use,
networking applicationscan allow us to provide more meaningful and effective interactions
and work-related communications, leading to establishing, maintaining and enhancing
relationshipsthroughout the communities (Jacobs et al.,2017).
As social media would change business models, workflows and decision-making, the
evaluation behavior of users is worthy to explore (Cui et al.,2018). The literature on social
media suffers from complexitiesin describing the behavior of users in searching, consuming
or using the information to cover both traditional evaluation skills like identifying the
author and new ones like exploring multimedia and graphics. According to Wang et al.
(2015), when social media contentis delivered more democratically and neutrally, users are
more likely to repeat using different types of them to search for information and make
critical decisions. Therefore,user-generated information on social media in the form of voice,
film, clip or music has a high rank in personal and organizational interestsand usage (Kim,
2019;Klawitter and Hargittai,2018).
Media literacy is an essential skill in the credibility evaluation of social media
information, which is discussed in a wide variety of contexts. As defined by Livingstone
(2004), media literacy is “the ability to access,analyze, evaluate and create messages across
a variety of contexts.”Like televisionand the web, social media as a new form of media and
information resource require new assessment skills. The characteristics of social media in
producing and sharing informationare unique in that the use of media literacy for the
credibility evaluation of social media information becomes a pressing need. Gammon and
White (2011) argued that while the media technologies have been changing in the past
decades, but “the core focus of media literacy remains much the same–meeting the
challenges of accessing, analyzing, evaluating and creating various media forms.”As a
result, there is a crucial considerationon how competencies related to media literacy can be
applied in new media and informationenvironments like social media platforms.
To the best of our knowledge, no studyhas been conducted to investigate the association
between media literacy and the credibility evaluation of social media information. In the
existing literature, much attention has been paid to training programs of media and
information literacies. Thus far, several studies have been conducted on either media literacy
or the credibility evaluation of social media information. What can be understood from studies
conducted is that the mean information literacy competencies ranged from medium to high
over time, but the media literacy skills were prone to below and average at the same time
(Koltay,2011;Singh, 2012;Lee and So, 2013). Therefore, the present s tudy aimed to investigate
the impacts of media literacy on the credibility evaluation of social media information among
students who are considered a major community of user groups.
Given the importance of credibility evaluation of social media information by users in
new information environmentsand the review of the existing literature, this study sought to
further examine this processamong students of the Faculty of Psychology and Educational
Sciences in Shahid Beheshti University. On the other hand, another goal of this study was
whether or not the differences in social media platforms can affect the type of credibility
evaluation of social media information. Specifically, whether or not the three popular platforms
of WhatsApp, Instagram and Telegram with their unique features, show a significant difference
in credibility evaluation of social media information.
2. Literature review
2.1 Media literacy: theoretical foundations
For the first time, Marshall McLuhan (1964)used the term “media literacy”in his book titled
“Understanding Media: The Extensions of Man”in which he emphasized the need for new
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