Investigating the Relationship between Media Misinformation Public Trust and Information Consumption in the Digital Era

Abstract

Digital media has changed how people distribute and procure information. However, there has been a greater spread of media misinformation and fake news, leading to a general distrust of the media and changes in how the public processes information. This study focuses on the effect of media misinformation on trust and public behavior in information processing. The main goal of the study was to analyze changes in trust and the effects of misinformation on media use. This research is quantitative, which allowed the use of a structured, self-administered, digital questionnaire. The questionnaire sample was planned to include 250 university students with active social media accounts. The data were processed to the level of the means and analyzed using social and Pearson correlations and regression analysis in SPSS. It was found that 72% of the respondents have seen misleading information. Also, 64% of respondents have trouble finding trusted news sources. It was found that misinformation is inversely proportional to trust in the media (r = −0.68, p. < 0.01). Misinformation in the media is one of the main factors shaping the public's trust and information processing behavior, accounting for 46% of the change (R² = 0.46). It was found that 58% of people almost always verified information and sighted it, almost always fact-checked, and only then signed and shared it online. The research shows that public trust decreases and that people's online information consumption changes due to media misinformation. The results focus on improving people's media literacy and responsible journalism. In addition, the study found that to help people trust digital media more, effective fact-checking needs to be established, and misinformation needs to be reduced.