Experimenting the effect of using visual multimedia intervention to inculcate social media literacy skills to tackle fake news

Abstract

This study experimented the effect of using visual multimedia intervention to improve users’ social media literacy skills to combat fake news. We carried out a quasi-experiment in one public university in Nigeria and randomly divided 470 participants into equal parts to form a control and experimental group. The respondents in the experimental group were exposed to 8 weeks of training using visual multimedia to improve their social media literacy skills to fight fake news. We realised that those exposed to social media literacy skills training via visual multimedia demonstrated a better knowledge of social media, better recognition of fake news, a higher tendency to verify information and a lesser inclination to share false news. Implications for research and practice were discussed.