Fake News Literacy Among Instagram Users in Ebonyi State.

The advent of social media has made information gathering and sharing easier, timely and less expensive.
As a result, fake news has also become commonplace The pervasiveness has triggered an interest in fake
news literacy as a measure to ameliorate the impacts. This study aims to examine fake news literacy
among Instagram users in Ebonyi State, Nigeria. It has the objectives of examining youths’ level of
awareness of fake news by Instagram users, assessing to what extent such awareness shapes their
verification of contents before sharing, the consumption pattern of these users, and proffering ways of
improving fake news literacy. The study was guided by the Media Literacy Theory and the Uses and
Gratifications. A survey methodology was employed, and a sample of 385 respondents was drawn from
the population using the Australian calculator for determining the sample sizes. The questionnaire was
used as the instrument for data collection. The data collected were analyzed using frequency tables and
percentages. The findings revealed that Instagram users in Ebonyi State are very much aware of fake
news. However, this awareness does not make them to verify information before sharing. It was
recommended that public and private organizations should incorporate practical verification silk that
teach users how to verify information using simple tools, emphasizing posts where verification steps are
shown by local content creators, use of local languages to promote fake news literacy etc. It concludes
that while Instagram users in Ebonyi State have higher awareness of fake news, this awareness does not
translate to verification when sharing information or contents online, additional interventions are
necessary to translate this awareness into habitual digital behaviours.