A Study of Social Media's Usability Among

Mapúans in Distinguishing False Information

By

Catindig, Leslie
Delos Santos, Hans
Labangon, John
Manzanero, Clark
Nocum, Kin
Puyat, Ashley
Rapanan, Denzel
Ylagan, Arvin

A Research Paper Submitted to the School of Languages, Humanities, and Social Sciences as
a Major Fulfillment of the Requirements for
The Contemporary World (GED105)

Dr. Gil Astrophel Orcena

Instructor
Abstract

Social media are a platform of sharing information in either text, image, video, audio, or a

combination of the above. Due to the convenient nature of these social media of interest,

namely Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram. Information going ‘viral’ is one of the norms. The

concern of this particular research is the false information or ‘fake news’, which is discussed

further in the related literatures, that proliferates in these social media; in which among the

three platforms is the most used one where they encounter the fake news; do Mapúans verify

the credibility of the information the consume; and how they do so. A qualitative analysis

was done through the results of a developed questionnaire towards thirty (30) Mapúans.

Wherein it showed that 77% of the respondents indeed check the validity of suspicious

information that they perceive in Facebook, as it was the most used among the three, by

mostly (74%) checking on the publisher and some (48%), by the means of the URL heading.

Keywords: False Information, Social Media, Information Validation

 Chapter 1

This chapter introduces the background, general and specific objectives, scope and

delimitations, beneficence, and reliability of the study.

Background of the Study

Social Media is a form of electronic communication like websites used for social

networking and blogging. In social media, users create online groups or communities to share

information, personal messages, ideas, videos, businesses, and other contents. It is a network-

based technology that facilitates the sharing of ideas by building virtual grounds and

communities. Most of the content in social media includes personal information, photos,

videos, and documents. Users use social media as a form of pastime and source of

entertainment. It can also be used to disseminate information worldwide. Social Media gives

users international access to documents and information worldwide for free (Dollarhide,

2019). 

Social Media was first used to interact with families and friends but was later

improved by businesses who wanted to use its advantage to be a new popular medium to

reach out and attract customers online and overseas through the use of advertisements. It has

the power to connect and share information from everyone around the world. Because of this,

it can be used as a platform to spread false information online. A recent study shows that

false information is still prevalent on Facebook despite the changes to the news feed

algorithm in the year 2018 (Newswhip, 2018). Two popular fake news websites show a

negligible amount of decline in Facebook engagements as of 2016 (Funke, 2018). For this

reason, it is imperative to examine how the online community will verify online information,

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and if they do practice a healthy skepticism of such media claims. In this study, the

researchers are to determine if users, specifically the Mapúan community, verify the

credibility of the posts they share and how they confirm or check such online posts.

Objectives of the Study

The researchers generally aim to determine the usability of social media platforms

of the target population and whether they verify the credibility of articles, posts, identity,

references, and sources of the information (text, images, and videos).  

The specific objectives of the study are the following: 

1. To know which social media platforms mostly used by Mapúans to gain information

and encounter false information

2. To find the motives in verifying the information. 

3. To know the words/phrases that led to question the credibility of the article. 

4. To know their main criteria in verifying information. 

Scope and Delimitations

The study mainly focuses on social media such as Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram

as the platforms where false information proliferates. The target population are Mapúa

students regardless of the year level and department. The study narrowed down the

verification process, motives, words, or phrases that question the credibility of the

information, the main criteria in verifying, and what platform do the target respondents often

see false information. The study will survey one (1) section of Mapúa students regardless of

age, gender, and status due accessibility, convenience, and time constraints.

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Beneficence of the Study

The study aims to know the usability of social media platforms among Mapúans in

distinguishing false information. The following are the significance of this study to the: 

1. Research respondents. The respondents will be aware of which factors and which

social medium proliferates false information and its verification process. 

2. Future researchers. The future researchers will gain more of the the different ideas

regarding proliferation of information in social media

3. It will affect the life of students of Mapúa University by means of guiding – giving

them an insight on the verification process and proliferation of false information

among the Mapúan Community in the social media.

Reliability and Validity

This research utilized a measure of reliability used to assess the degree to which

different judges or raters agree in their assessment decisions whether it is pass or fail.

Criterion-Related Validity can be used in order to predict future or current performance of a

particular substance that is why the information gathered were limited to the students of

Mapúa University. It correlates test results with another criterion of interest. The data

gathered will give the researchers insight and also provide a thorough understanding about

social media's usability among Mapúans in distinguishing false information. 

Furthermore, the validity and reliability of this research undergoes planning and

consultation from the School of Social Sciences and Education of Mapua University

specifically to Dr. Gil Astrophel Orcena. To follow the standard way of gathering data and

information. It also relies and follows the standards in determining the false information,

3
Conceptual Framework

Input Process Output

 Perceptions and responses Interpretation of the Identified which social

of Mapúa students data gathered. This study media the Mapúan students
regarding proliferation, uses survey questionnaire. frequently encounter false
creation, and motives of The researchers aim to information, motives in
false information analyze the perception of verifying the information,
Mapúa students about the word/phrases that question

 Related studies regarding of spread false information the credibility of the article,

of false information and in social media. It causes, and main criteria in verifying
social media motives, their verification information.
procedure, motives in
verifying, and common
type of fake news.

FEEDBACK

The insights whether the students of Mapúa University validate the information seen

in social media platforms – Facebook, Twitter, Instagram were the input of this study. The

necessary methodology was conducted upon the data collected and a handout survey

questionnaire as the research instrument. The determination of the factors to which the

students sharing the unvalidated information that can be the cause for false information.

4
 Chapter 2

Review of Related Literature and Studies

This chapter discusses the compiled literature to be used as a reference and basis for

the definitions and theories to back up the framework of the study.

False Information

Fake information, as the term is ordinarily comprehended in 2017. It began picking

up acknowledgment in 2010 when Twitter bots were utilized to re-post a phony news story

concerning the substitution of Senator Ted Kennedy (Torres, Gerhart, & Negahban, 2018).

The phony news scourge developed wildly in 2014 with the advancement of a story

recommending the isolate of a whole Texas town because of the worry of Ebola on US soil.

All the more as of late, the job of phony news in the public eye has increased expanding

consideration and is currently observed as affecting worldwide governmental issues. It has

turned out to be critical to the point that both Facebook and Google are currently attempting

to relieve counterfeit news on their foundation.

“Misinformation is not like a plumbing problem you fix. It is a social condition, like

crime, that you must constantly monitor and adjust to.”

 -Tom Rosenstiel

The rise of "fake news" and the expansion of fake accounts that are spread by people

and bots online are testing distributors and stages. Those attempting to stop the spread of

false data are attempting to structure specialized and human frameworks that can get rid of it

and limit the manners by which bots and different plans spread untruths and deception.

(Anderson & Raine, 2017)

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 For classifying and labeling what the false information the group is referring to,

Kumar and Shah’s research (2018) was used, which says, there are two categories of false

information on social media, namely, false information based on intent, and false information

based on knowledge, and both categories are divided into two subcategories. Intent-based

false information sees misinformation and disinformation. Misinformation is the spread of

false information without the intent to deceive people, in which the reference said that it may

be due to misinterpretation of the text and implying it on a different field where the

information is supposed to be applied, in which the person who shared had no intention nor

knowledge that the information that they’re sharing are false. The latter sees spread of false

information with full consciousness and intent to deceive people – motives aside, this is the

main focus of most fake news studies around the world. Then, there are the subcategories of

the knowledge-based false information. There are the ones based on opinion, in which the

information comes from the source has no logical nor scientific basis for the truth of the

matter being spoken/shared. And the last one sees information based on facts. These are

made from convincing statements made from single-valued ground truth that makes it harder

to distinguish from the truth.

Social Media and its role in the Spread of False Information

As to why false information is prevalent in social media, the study of Daniela Baum,

Martin Spann, and Johann Füller was used. They focused on the impacts of social media

campaigns in the success of the introduction of new products. The goal of this study is to

analyze the impact of a social media campaign on the success of a new product introduction

by conducting surveys as well as behavioral data. The results of their study show that

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advertising products in social media have positively influenced the consumers about the

product which then turned them to getting interested in purchasing the product because of the

positive influence. Social media is truly a powerful platform for advertising and for retailer’s

marketing products. Social media could facilitate social interactions from around the world

and this will accelerate the dissemination of the information about the new product (Baum et

al., 2019).

Verification of Information Validity

However, various social media platforms are not the only responsible in spreading

fake news but also its consumers and users. The credibility of the article traces back to its

author. Domain and URLS of these websites must be checked. Established news organization

owned their domains. Sites ending with.com.co could raise suspicion even it exhibited

professionalism in its user interface (UI) even it has a resemblance with legitimate news

source. The credibility of the author or site must be checked. The sites’ “about us” section

must inform its audiences regarding the company that owns it, members of leadership,

mission, and ethics behind the organization. It must be written straightforwardly not

melodramatic or even overblown. Direct quotations in an article from professionals and

experts in that field are frequently seen in most legitimate publications if it talks about

controversial issues. Then check for the authority and credibility of the professional being

cited.  Pictures in those articles must accurately illustrate the phenomenon happened. The

pictures used must illustrate real stories from interviewees or from its location. (Davis, 2017)

Zhou and Zafarani (2018) conducted a study that focuses on fake news from four

perspectives, namely the false knowledge that it contains, the writing style, propagation

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patterns, and credibility. Reviewing the features of fake news and issues related to it, they are

able to comprehensively and extensively summarize and evaluate the present research on

online false information. 

People are mostly fooled by false information on social media because of that

Pennycook and Rand (2019) had concluded based on their conducted experiment with 3446

participants that are subjected to a cognitive reflection test to “measure the propensity to

engage in analytical reasoning”. They discovered that the participants use analytical thinking

in assessing whether the information on fake news are indeed fake, which brings to the first

lines of the abstract of this study. People do ‘think’ about it if the news is fake, thus, is a

person gets deceived, it is more likely that those people were too ‘lazy’ to think, as implied

by the abstract. In addition to that reason, Bode and Vraga (2015) conducted a social

experiment with active online users if they could correct or confirm false stories. The

researchers manipulated related stories to posts with misinformation to either confirm,

correct, or both confirm and correct the posts with misinformation. Their findings show that

when related stories correct false posts, the misconceptions are significantly reduced.

The expanding utilization of internet-based life for data sharing has raised the

requirement for information literacy (IL) instruction to get ready understudies to be viable

data makers and communicators. One concern is that understudies, in some of the time

aimlessly forward deception. Understanding the purposes for falsehood sharing would help

the improvement of IL mediation systems. Guided by the Uses and Gratifications approach

and gossip research, undergrad and graduate understudies in Singapore were reviewed on

why they share deception via web-based networking media. (Chen & Theng, 2015). Sexual

orientation and study-level contrasts were examined. Over 60% of respondents had shared

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misinformation. The top reasons were identified with the data's apparent attributes, just as

self-articulation, and mingling. Accuracy and legitimacy did not rank exceptionally. Ladies

had a higher pervasiveness of sharing and expectation to share deception. Undergraduate and

graduate understudies contrasted in their explanations behind sharing deception. The

previous offer (and mean to share) more falsehood than the last mentioned, yet the thing that

matters was not measurably huge. Since a large number of the reasons referred to were social

in nature, IL preparing should address the social inspirations driving such conduct. (Chen &

Theng, 2015) Online networking frameworks may likewise create highlights that urge clients

to banner exposed postings and enable a remedy to be shown close by the falsehood.

The 2016 US presidential election burst the concept of Fake News. Fake news could

have been a dramatic effect in Trump’s election. Allcott & Gentzkow (2017) presented

clarifications on the level of overall exposure to fake news, and its persuasion to have a

dramatic effect.  The average US adults had read pro-Trump articles compared to pro-Clinton

during the election period. Spenkuch and Toniatti (2016) approximates that 0.02% vote

shares points could change if voters were exposed to one additional television campaign ad.

They stated that social media was a source of political information due to the following: (1) it

increases the relative profit of small-scale, short-term strategies created by fake news and

producers also it reduces long-term reputation for quality. (2) the minimal information

viewed on phones or news feed windows have difficulty in judging its credibility. (3) the

network in Facebook friends were ideologically grouped. It reported that the median share of

friends with contrasting ideology was only 20% for liberals and 18% for conservatives. The

likelihood of reading and sharing news articles is parallel with the ideological interest of the

user. Thus, the Facebook users will have small probability of receiving evidence regarding

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the true state of the world. Web traffic was used in gauging the importance of social media

for fake news suppliers. There was about 10% of total traffic for top news sites. In contrast,

fake news websites had a high share of traffic in social media. They recommended solutions

such as increasing the information about the state of the world, increasing the incentives for

news consumers in interfering the true state of the world, social media platforms and

advertising networks had algorithms to remove misleading articles and sites that violates

their policies. Facebook used to flag false articles as “disputed by 3rd party fact-checkers”.

Thus, decreasing the spread of false information. They had concluded it may increase social

welfare however who becomes the judge of truth.

Individual’s Perception of False Information

A study was conducted by Khan (2019) on Ohio University found that various factors

can be applied to predict a person’s ability to detect false information on social media.

Additionally, by observing at the same certain factors, it is possible if someone is likely to

spread misinformation. The study helps to understand on why people would share false

information on social media using the information literacy factors and theoretical lens. The

fake news could be termed as the major issues of this time and other studies that highlights

the role of individuals in ceasing the increasing number of false information falls short

(Khan, 2019). The research hypotheses were tested in Indonesia, considering being one of the

largest social media markets in the world and having a number of misinformation and hoaxes

caught in the news headline. There were 396 participants in the study, it was found that age,

gender, and social class was not a huge factor, but rather the media and information literacy

was found to be the biggest factor in identifying false information. It was also found that

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information verification skills such as simply searching new information in Google first and

not sharing that information right away can be a proof that is beneficial in ceasing the spread

of false information. Internet users should possess an attitude of positive skepticism when

any new information comes their way (Khan, 2019). The study found that those who would

benefit the most from understanding the information literacy are people from lower education

levels, those who are recently exposed to the internet and have lower income.

In the work of Kanoh (2018), becoming pervasive in the internet gives a huge amount

of contribution to fake news and rumors. This results to increasing number of fake news

victims. It is common that some information found in the internet is unreliable but still some

internet users to believe and perceive the information that they are seeing in the internet.

Ironically, even if most of the information found in the internet is unreliable, the believers are

continuously growing overtime. In their study, they investigated the variation of the

persuasive power of false rumors from the angle of the existence of “people’s eating &

drinking habit”. As for the results, they concluded that most users believe in fake news when

they are drinking or eating.

Social Media Habits

In an online article by Haynes, T. at Harvard University Graduate School of Arts and

Sciences, Humans form habit through reward pathways that develop over actions that induce

the reward chemical of the body, dopamine. Notifications, likes, comments, or pop-ups from

Facebook or Instagram induces small amounts of dopamine to the individual perceiving. The

act of exiting the application and re-opening, refreshing, or scrolling are known actions that

bring new information and notifications which can become a habit for users. And as the

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reward pathway becomes consolidated by those actions, the user would indifferently scroll

down and see information which they may not process except for the headline or thumbnail

due to the desire consume more information, as the body would seek more and more dosage

of dopamine, had the source been unstimulating.

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 Chapter 3

METHODOLOGY

This chapter discusses the research design, research instrument used, respondents of

the study in the usability of social media among Mapúans in distinguishing false information.

Research Design

This study is a qualitative research which made use of a phenomenological approach

to collect data relevant to the study. This mainly focuses on gathering verbal data rather than

measurements. The phenomenological approach is an appropriate qualitative method

concerned with understanding and interpreting an activity or phenomenon examined. The

aim of such an approach is to comprehend the significance of the analysis that underlie daily

activities and situations. This approach was distinguished by identifying the questions or the

problem to be studied and then conducting proper procedures to gather information needed to

address the study. The data collected and used was focused on the participants’ subjective

experiences that made it appropriate.

Research Instrument

The research instrument used to conduct the study was a clerical tool –

questionnaires. The questionnaire was personally handed out to one (1) section of Mapúans

regardless with their year level, department, age, and gender. The questionnaire evaluates

whether the respondent validates the information in social media and if not, a brief response

was asked; their methodology in evaluating the validity of the information; the motives why

they check the validity; and which social media they frequently encounter false information.

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Respondents of the Study

The target population of the study were the students of Mapúa University enrolled in

the A.Y. 2019-2020. A stratified sampling followed by a clustered sampling was used. A

clustered sampling where subgroup of the population used as sampling unit which were

randomly selected. One section (1) of Mapúa college students was selected. The

questionnaire was personally handed to that section composed of thirty (30) Mapúa students

of the same department, School of Mechanical Engineering; same batch – ages ranging from

19-21, reason being for the given profile criterion was the time restraint and accessibility of

the said respondents, as well as that age range fits to be the second highest number of

Facebook users according to July 2019 statistics. The respondents were then clustered into

two groups which verified or did not verified the news they share in social media. The group

that verified the news was further questioned.

Data Gathering Procedure

The researchers undertook the following steps to gather pertinent data from the

chosen random students of Mapua University. It will be gathered at 1st week of October

2019.

1. Pre-development Process

a. Request letter were drafted and handed in and to be passed to Dr. Gil

Astrophel Orcena, research adviser of the course GED 105.  

b.  Questionnaires to be utilized to gather information were made by the

researchers at the 4th week of September 2019 and were validated by the

experts in the field of the study at 1st week of October.

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2. Data Collection Instruments

The tool that was used to collect information was questionnaire method. It has

only one part where the respondents were asked which social media platforms

mostly used by Mapúans to gain information, what motives in verifying the

information, the words/phrases that led to question the credibility of the article

and other supplementary question to justify their answers.

3. Data Collection

The materials used and processes conducted were analyzed using the checklists

and the opinion answers was observed.

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 Chapter 4

Presentation, Analysis, And Interpretation of Data

This chapter discusses results and discussion, presentation of the gathered data, and

findings in the usability of social media among Mapúans in distinguishing false information.

Results and Discussion

The Figures below were the graphed responses of the thirty (30) Mapúa students

whether they check on the validity of the news they encounter in social media such as

Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. The respondents were clustered into those who validate

the credibility of the information and those who do not. The majority who do, had proceeded

with the questionnaire, and gave more answers in subject to interpretation.

23; 23%

77; 77%

YES NO

Fig. 1 Percentage Response in Checking the Validity of News in Social Media

Seven (7) students (23 %) disregard the validity of the news. They could be a higher

target of false information and its proliferation. In the findings of Brode and Vraga (2015),

related stories that false post that were corrected, its misconceptions were significantly

16
reduced. Unfortunately, those seven (7) students had not given a response whether they

assume the information was valid and their reason. They could share misinformation due to

self-articulation or mingling (Chen & Theng, 2015). They could contribute to the spread of

misinformation which the actor does not have any intention to deceive people. There could

be a probability that designated information proliferates on a different field,

misinterpretations, and perceptions, or they were fully conscious whether that information

was false leading to disinformation. The twenty-three (23) students were further questioned

regarding false information in social media.

Reverse image search 4

Check the comments 30

Check the authors and their credentials 48

Look at the quotes in a story 9

Read the about us section 17

Check the sources of the information 74

Pay attention to the domain and URL 48

0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80

Fig. 2 Validation Process of the Shared Information in Social Media

It was found that among the validation process presented in the questionnaire,

checking the sources was the most practiced, which garnered 74% of the response. Checking

the sources (publisher or author) were indicators that the readers used their analytical

reasoning in assessing the news or post that they have seen. People have a natural tendency

to engage this type of reasoning if the information on the fake news were visibly prevalent

(Pennycook and Rand, 2019).

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 Even though only 4% of the respondents verify their information via reverse image

search, it is a highly regarded method of verification, as images could easily be manipulated

by various software or artificial intelligence (AI). Nightingale (2017) claimed in their study

that people have a better chance in detecting and locating manipulations in an image,

however their skills are far from perfect due to the high-level editing on images and the

likeliness of being exposed on a daily basis through social media. In a study of Dr. Derrick

Watson (2017) people were skilled in detecting implausible physical manipulations but had

difficulty in locating it compared to plausible physical manipulations. Hence, reverse image

search could be one of the fundamentals in verification process of news seen in social media.

Practicing these verification skills can contribute in ceasing the proliferation of false

information (Khan, 2019). The numbers are understandable, given that not all information on

the social media are images and the process itself of copying the image URL, opening an

external browser, then accessing either Google’s reverse image search, TinEye, or iqdb to

automate the source is rather inconvenient compared to checking the URL, visible in the

Facebook internal browser, in which the user has a primary criteria for validity, the very

beginning of the link, the “https” tag.

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 Afraid to be bashed 17
Fig. 3
Motives Peer Pressure 17
in
Untraceable pictures 0

Exaggerated headlines 61

Authors with history of writing fake news 30

Number of shares, comments, and likes 17

Outdated Information 48

Strange URLs 39
0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70

Checking the Validity

61% of the respondents who verify their sources do so, because they doubt the

headline of the news which contain exaggerated information above the norm of a ‘catchy’

headline, given, that before implications, before URL’s and the content, the headline is

perceived first. In browsing using a desktop or smartphone, users generally only look at a

snippet of that article, such as the headline (Allocott & Gentzkow, 2017). Outdated

information and strange URL followed in the cause of verifying the validity with 48% and

39% response, respectively. Data shown that the motives aligned to the process of validation

such as strange URLs and domain being checked. Legitimate news websites own their

domains. Headlines in exaggeration could led to suspicion. Browsing in a desktop or a

smartphone limits the information regarding on that article or post previewed in their

timelines or newsfeeds which most of it were headlines. False information could rise using

outdated information or information proven to be wrong as evidences to deceive its audience.

There was no response in untraceable pictures since most of the pictures used were seen in

the internet. Also, reverse image was the least-used verification process. The quantity of

shares, comments, and likes, peer pressure, and ‘afraid to be bashed’ had equal response of

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17%, in which there could be a psychological or sociological factor intervening. Authors

with history of fake news writing styles and their credibility had 30% response where in a

study of Zhou and Zafarani (2018) writing styles and credibility fell under in one of the four

perspective of fake news: false knowledge.

Instagram ; 13; 13%

Twitter; 22; 22%

Facebook; 65; 65%

Fig. 4 Percentage of False Information Perceived in Social Media Platforms

There are traditional media wherein false media proliferate, however, given the

accessibility, using social media platforms such as Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram, one

could facilitate social interactions globally, thus accelerating the proliferation of information

(Baum et al., 2019). Among the online community of Mapúans, false information was most

perceived in Facebook with a 65% response. Utilization of Facebook could be informative,

for entertainment, or for global interaction. It could spread information through articles,

stories, pictures, and videos. While false information was least perceived in Instagram with a

13% response since its main content was images. Twitter had 22% response in perceiving

false information. Clement (2019) reported on Statista that Facebook is ranked as the most

famous social network based on active users, while Instagram and Twitter ranked 6th and 12th,

20
respectively. However, in the case of the respondents, there were more perceived fake news

in Twitter than Instagram.

Biased
News; 39

Clickbait; 87

Misleading
headings; 52

Propaganda;
Fabricated 26
Journalism; Sponsored
35 Content; 26

Fig. 5 Common Types of Encountered Fake News

87% of the response sees clickbait as the most common type of fake news

encountered by Mapúa students. Clickbaits are a new form of content marketing that target

the masses. Its main purpose was attracting attention and encourage visitors to ‘click’ on a

specific web page. Content marketers use stimulating headlines or thumbnails to lure

audiences in clicking the link, hence, an influx of consumption flows to their net traffic. Fake

news had a higher portion of web traffic in social media than legitimate news (Allcott &

Gentzkow, 2017). By this, headlines were written exagerrately and was the most caused in

checking the validity among Mapúa students. Misleading headlines with 52% responses

second to the most common types of fake news encountered. Furthermore, people had forms

habit through reward pathways by cueing actions that induces reward chemical of the body:

dopamine. Haynes (2018) notifications, likes, comments, even pop-ups from various social

media induces small amounts of dopamine to the one perceiving. This act of continuous

21
refreshing. Re-opening, or scrolling that becomes a habit of a user would have a tendency to

scroll down for more information without further processing those exaggerated headlines due

to the desire consumption of more information. The least common type of encountered fake

news was propaganda and sponsored content; both had 26% response, given Mapua does not

promote any political agenda, which was embodied in the students.

Frequency of the information 43

Mass users percieve it as credible 13

Bias to their Beliefs 57

Convincing Facts and Statements 17

Insufficient Knowledge about the article/topic 35

Authority and Credibility of the Author/website 13

Peer Pressure 13

To deceive its audience 74

0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80

Fig. 6

Respondents’ Perception of the Proliferation of Fake News

Majority of the perception of the students regarding the motives in proliferating fake

news was to deceive its audience with a 74% response. With this perception, all false

information was categorized as disinformation which intended to deceive its audience

without knowing its other type–misinformation, as stated in one of the entries of chapter 2.

According to figure 4, Facebook was the most platform in perceiving false information. By

this, Facebook’s algorithm in networking friends by clustering them ideologically (Allcott &

Gentzkow, 2017). Hence, most content shown in their newsfeeds have inter-related

characteristics among them and their friends. This where the biases to their beliefs come

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 forth in motive of proliferating fake
Create Confusion of Facts and Information

news with a 57% response.

Create Malice to their competitors
Proliferating information despite of
Promote their ideology
insufficient knowledge regarding it
Ad revenue
attained 35% response, as explained
Social Media Bots
in the formation of habits. It can be
Increase Traffics for their Websites
categorized as spread of
Deceive its audience

0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70
misinformation due to intention of

harm. It garnered 43% response. Whilst, the information was perceived credible, the

credibility of the author or website and peer pressure were the least motives in the spread of

fake news; all attain 13% response, ad verecundiam and ad populum, respectively. Other

significant factor based on the results in motives of proliferating false information were the

author’s writing style, propagation pattern or frequency of the information, and the credibility

of the article fell under the category of false knowledge according to the study of Zhou and

Zafarani (2018).

Fig. 7. Respondents’ Perception Regarding the Motives of Creating False Information

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 There were various reasons why false information is being generated and spread.

Among the surveyed respondents, 65% thought that the creators of the false information

plans on deceiving its audience, regardless of their agenda. Disinformation was to create

malice and deception among its audience. Both creating malice against their competitors and

create confusion of facts and information attained 35% response. Ad revenue was thought of

second in the motives behind the creators of false information, given controversy invites

audience. Ad revenue could be generated by using clickbait which was the common type of

false information the online Mapúan community interacted with. In luring these users,

exaggerated headlines were written. It was also the main reason the students validated the

post or article before sharing it. These exaggerated headlines could also mislead about the

absolute facts and information available to the audience. Generating traffics for their website

acquired 35% response. These traffics increases their websites for potential advertisers, thus

acquiring more ad revenue. Nonetheless, social media bots got the least response i.e. 30%.

24
 Chapter 5

Conclusion and Recommendation

This chapter draws the conclusion based on the study’s objectives and will generate

recommendations based on the gathered data.

Conclusion

Social Media has been a medium for us in sharing different kinds of information from

around the world. Social Media gives users international access to documents and

information worldwide for free. In fact, Social Media is powerful when it comes sharing

information overseas, that is why some people use it as their advantage to deceive other

people. A recent study of (Guess & Nagler, 2019) shows that false information is still

prevalent on Facebook despite the changes to the news feed algorithm in the year 2018.

Among the respondents, there was a high percentage of them checking the validity of

news perceived in the three social media platforms. The remaining percentage could be prone

to misinformation due to self-articulation or mingling. However, there were insufficient data

to conclude that they disregard the validity of the information and proceed as if it were true.

Facebook was the most prevalent social media platform in encountering false

information among Mapúans, since it also ranked as the top social networking sites based on

active users.

The main motivation in verifying the information they share was due to exaggerated

headlines. Headlines were snippets of information perceived in an individual’s newsfeeds

upon browsing in desktops or smartphones. Furthermore, a habit of continuous re-opening,

refreshing, or scrolling would have a higher tendency to perceive information without

furthering processing it due to the desire of consuming more information.

1
 The main criteria of Mapúans in verifying false information was checking the sources

of information. Subsequently, headlines could deceive or mislead its audience that can be

used by creators of false information. It is also drawn that fake news is more often than not

viewed through clickbait, which could generate an increased web traffic for fake news of the

site itself, thus causing more ad revenue. It was observed that the respondents tend to

perceive in the proliferation and the motives of the creator of false information was to

deceive its audience which fell under the category of false information that was intentionally

deceiving its audience – disinformation.

Recommendations

Based on the study, the researchers recommend the following:

1. For future researchers of similar topic,

a. improve the research by having a larger number of respondents and a different

set of theories to support the claims to verify the same questions and

objectives under different circumstances.

b. include other social medias not only limited to Facebook, Twitter, and

Instagram for wider results.

c. cite more specific examples of the motives in verifying information.

d. cite specific words or phrases that lead the users to question the validity of the

information.

2. To other researchers, this paper may be used as a reference for other studies related to

validation of false information.

3. And in general, add more relevant related literatures for stronger claims.

2
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4
 APPENDIX A

Survey Questionnaire

1. Do you check the validity of the news you share on social media sites before you

share it? 

 Yes

 No

If Yes kindly proceed to the next question, otherwise, do you assume that information

to be valid? And why? (Brief statement)

_____________________________________________________________________

_____________________________________________________________________

2. How do you check the validity of the post that you share?

 Pay attention to the domain and URL

 Check the sources of the information

 Read the about us section

 Look at the quotes in a story

 Check the authors and their credentials

 Check the comments

 Reverse image search

3. What makes you check the validity of the post before you share it? 

 Strange URLs

 Outdated information

 Number of shares, comments and likes

5
  Authors with history of writing fake news

 Exaggerated headlines

 Untraceable pictures

 Peer Pressure

 Afraid to be bashed

4. Which Social Media Platform do you often see false information?

 Facebook

 Twitter

 Instagram

 Others: ____________

5. What is the most common type of fake news you encounter?

 Clickbait

 Propaganda

 Sponsored Content

 Fabricated Journalism

 Misleading headings

 Biased news

6. What do you think is the reason why people spread fake news?

 To Deceive its Audience

 Peer Pressure

 Authority and Credibility of the Author/Creator/Website

 Insufficient Knowledge about the topic/article/information

6
  Convincing Facts and Statements

 Bias to their Beliefs

 Mass users perceive it as credible

 Frequency of the Information

7. What do you think are the motives of creators/authors/Websites of those “False

Information” you encounter? (You may Choose more than one (1))

 Deceive its Audience

 Increase Traffics for their Websites

 Social Media Bots

 Ad Revenue

 Promote their Ideology

 Create Malice to their Competitor/s

 Create Confusion of Facts and Information

7
 Appendix B

Letter to the Respondents

Dear Participant,

We are student researchers of Mapúa University enrolled in the subject The

Contemporary World (Ged105) as a major fulfillment of the said subject we would like to
ask for your participation in our study entitled “A Study of Social Media’s Usability
Among Mapúans in Distinguishing False Information”
With this, we would like to ask for your precious time and effort in answering the
attach questionnaire necessary to complete the said study. Your responses will remain
confidential and anonymous. Data from this research will be kept under lock and key and
reported only as a collective combined total. No one other than the researchers will know
your individual answers to this questionnaire.

Thank You for Your Cooperation!

Respectfully Yours,

Catindig, Leslie

Delos Santos, Hans

Labangon, John

Manzanero, Clark

Nocum, Kin

Puyat, Ashley

8
Rapanan, Denzel

Ylagan, Arvin

Appendix C

Letter of Validity

September 2019

Dr. Gil Astrophel Orcena

School of Languages, Humanities, and Social Sciences
Mapúa University

Dear Dr. Gil Astrophel Orcena,

We are student researchers from Mapúa University enrolled in The Contemporary World
(Ged105). As a major fulfillment of the said subject, we would like to ask for your precious
time and effort in validating our research instrument–questionnaire that will be used in our
study entitled “A Study of Social Media’s Usability Among Mapúans in Distinguishing
False Information.”

Thank You Very Much!

Respectfully Yours,

Catindig, Leslie
Delos Santos, Hans
Labangon, John
Manzanero, Clark
Nocum, Kin
Puyat, Ashley

9
Rapanan, Denzel
Ylagan, Arvin

10