Analyzing patterns of political news evaluation among university students in Northeast Thailand

Abstract

Through social media and digital platforms, fake news and both professional as well as non-professional news sources are increasingly circulated, thus having a greater impact on people's lives and society. As a result, evaluating news has emerged as a crucial skill. However, it is yet unclear what variables contribute to this increase. To offer more insights, this study attempts to investigate through political news accessibility the factors influencing political news assessment of university students in Northeast Thailand. This study was a quantitative research, and the theory underlying it was news literacy. 1200 samples from undergraduate students from state, private, and autonomous universities were obtained through a multi-stage sampling. 400 questionnaires, utilized as a research tool, were distributed to each type of university for data collection. In order to examine the reliability of the research instrument, Cronbach's alpha was also used in a pre-test stage along with a content validity analysis of the questionnaire. For all elements, the alpha coefficient was 0.93. The findings demonstrated that political news assessment was most influenced by political news accessibility, which is the intervening variable (Beta = 0.265); followed by political news exposure from social media (Beta = 0.217); inner drives for the follow-up of political news (Beta = 0.190); influence of groups and social networks (Beta = 0.170); specific characteristics of the Internet (Beta = 0.151); importance of political news (Beta = 0.147); political news exposure from websites (Beta = 0.099); benefits of political news (Beta = 0.075); and political news exposure from print media (Beta = 0.042). The student characteristic factor, motivation for political news exposure factor, and political news exposure factor accounted for 67.45 percent of the variance in explaining political news evaluation among Thai students, through political news accessibility (R2 = 0.6745). Consequently, improving these elements will lead to better political news evaluation.