Here's how social media is making it hard for people to differentiate between real and fake news

People tend to opt for social media sites for everything these days be it reading up on information or sharing their personal pictures and videos. But a new study has found that this concoction of entertainment and news on such social media sites can make it hard for people to differentiate between real and fake news. And people who got their content from separated categories didn't believe in fake news as much.

The author of the study, George Pearson, a senior lecturer and research associate in communication said that the study shows the dangers of receiving news from social media sites. “We are drawn to these social media sites because they are one-stop shops for media content, updates from friends and family, and memes or cat pictures,” Pearson said. “But that jumbling of content makes everything seem the same to us. It makes it harder for us to distinguish what we need to take seriously from that which is only entertainment.”

For the study, a fictional social media site called “Link Me” was created and 370 participants were asked to go through it. These participants were made aware of in advance on which sources were credible and which weren't. The participants were then showed various different posts on the website. After this, they were asked certain questions based on what they read. Pearson wanted to know whether they paid more attention to current affairs rather than entertainment.

“That would suggest that they were paying attention to the sources of the posts and understanding what was news and what was not,” Pearson said. The results showed that when everything was jumbled up, participants didn't tend to pay much attention to the sources of their news. “They were less likely to verify source information to ensure that it was a credible source,” he said.

“There is no visual distinction on Facebook between something from the New York Times and something from a random blog. They all have the same colour scheme, same font,” he said. “Right now, the structure of information platforms - especially social media - may be reducing positive media literacy behaviours.”