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Abstract

Today's news media landscape exposes audiences to multi-faceted media choices. Using an audience-centered approach in a cross-sectional survey of 419 respondents, we examined the audience's choice of news sources and their assessment of media credibility and verification of news as determined by the demographic factors of age and educational level. The results indicate that mainstream news media outlets are generally more popular than social media, but the latter has more appeal among younger people. While audiences' age and education count in selecting the most reliable news outlets, the different age brackets generally have similar tendencies to validate the news they receive from their most reliable sources. However, persons with higher levels of education are more likely to validate news than those with lower levels of education. Thus, we discuss the implications of our findings on fake news and misinformation for young people.

Keywords

audience validation of news traditional media demographic characteristics social media news-democracy

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This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

Author Biographies

Peter Nkrumah Amponsah, Department of Journalism and Communication Sciences, Catholic University of Ghana, Sunyani, Ghana

Peter Nkrumah Amponsah is an Associate Professor in the Department of Journalism and Communication Sciences at the Catholic University of Ghana. He obtained his PhD from Southern Illinois University at Carbondale. His research interest includes communication law, ethics and policy, digital image processing, and gender equality.

Mavis Okyere, Department of Education and Science Education, Catholic University of Ghana, Sunyani, Ghana

Mavis Okyere is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Mathematics and Science Education at the Catholic University of Ghana. She obtained her PhD in Mathematics Education from the University of Alberta. Her research interest includes ethnomathematics in the Ghanaian culture, cognition and metacognition, assessment in mathematics classrooms, and mathematics teachers' classroom practices.

How to Cite
Nkrumah Amponsah, P., & Okyere, M. . (2023). Audiences’ Choice of Sources and Verification of News: Do Age and Educational Level Matter in Ghana?. Convergence Chronicles, 4(4), 98–114. https://doi.org/10.53075/Ijmsirq/745634567
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