ERIC Number: EJ1476421
Record Type: Journal
Publication Date: 2025-Jul
Pages: 23
Abstractor: As Provided
ISBN: N/A
ISSN: ISSN-1746-1979
EISSN: EISSN-1746-1987
Available Date: 0000-00-00
The Risky News Sharing Quotient (RNSQ): A Research Instrument for Exploring News-Sharing Behaviour That Spreads Fake News
Tania Josephine Martin1; Yoan Gutiérrez Vázquez1; Robiert Sepúlveda-Torres1; José Ignacio Abreu Salas1
Education, Citizenship and Social Justice, v20 n2 p257-279 2025
The spread of fake news (FN) has attracted attention from disciplines ranging from social sciences to Artificial Intelligence. This work is novel because it explores the news-sharing behaviour of social-media users, focussing on those that spread FN, rather than the psychological motivations behind them. The 14-item Risky News-Sharing Quotient (RNSQ) was developed and Exploratory Factor Analysis discovered three relevant factors: (i) news-sharing behaviour that contributes to debunking FN; (ii) news-sharing frequency and attitudes to sharing; and (iii) news-sharing behaviour that contributes to the spread of FN. The study, conducted among university students, found that 75% reported risky news-sharing behaviour that spreads FN. No link was found between perceiving FN as a problem and debunking it. Moreover, 83% of survey participants were unable to identify a FN story. Overall, the findings suggest an inability to apply knowledge of the relevant FN detection strategies to debunk FN, but importantly an apparent lack of motivation to check the veracity of a news story. From these conclusions, better-informed educational intervention strategies can be implemented to address the FN problem in-situ, such as promoting the importance of responsible news-sharing by raising awareness of how the spread of FN can impede the proper functioning of societies.
Descriptors: Deception, News Reporting, Misinformation, Intervention, Teaching Methods, Social Media, Information Sources, Information Literacy, Computer Mediated Communication, Psychological Patterns, Factor Analysis, Sharing Behavior, Credibility, Consciousness Raising, State Universities, College Students, Student Attitudes, Political Attitudes, Foreign Countries, Digital Literacy
SAGE Publications. 2455 Teller Road, Thousand Oaks, CA 91320. Tel: 800-818-7243; Tel: 805-499-9774; Fax: 800-583-2665; e-mail: journals@sagepub.com; Web site: https://sagepub.com
Publication Type: Journal Articles; Reports - Research
Education Level: Higher Education; Postsecondary Education
Audience: N/A
Language: English
Sponsor: N/A
Authoring Institution: N/A
Identifiers - Location: Spain
Grant or Contract Numbers: N/A
Author Affiliations: 1Universidad de Alicante, Spain