Effects of political fake news on the attitude and voting behavior of community residents in Jaen, Nueva Ecija [manuscript]
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Date
2019
Authors
Yvonne D. Besmonte
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Abstract
According to Arsenault (2017), “fake news has proven to be influential in the U.S. but it may be even more powerful in the Philippines, where technology and celebrity make people vulnerable of false reports”. It was also revealed in her study that Filipinos are using almost 80% of their time in social media even if the connection of the internet in the country is super slow, yet one of the most expensive in the world. This study was limited to the registered voters and residents of Jaen, Nueva Ecija and conducted during summer of school year 2017-2018. It used Professor John Zaller’s “A Theory of Media Politics” that posits a system of political campaigns in which voters, presidential candidates and the media are dependent on one another.
Descriptive Research Design was used in the study to find out the variables that can help in spreading fake news to the community, also it used Quota Sampling, this sampling in non-probability sampling technique wherein the assembled sample has the same proportions of individuals as the entire population with respect to known characteristics., traits or focused phenomenon. It was conducted from June to July 2018 in Jaen, Nueva Ecija. Interview Schedule method was used in gathering data using questionnaire. Data gathered were analyzed by using descriptive statistics such as frequency counts, means and range. Results were gathered from the respondents the mean age of the respondents was 35.27 with an age range 18.72 years old. The computed standard deviation was 13.2 and there is quite a variation of the respondents ages. Eighty percent of the respondents were female and the remaining twenty percent were male. The highest member of religion in Niyugan was Catholic and were married.
It aimed to determine the effects of political fake news on the attitude and voting behavior to an individual. It also determined the different social media sites visited by the respondents and the different fake news that they can access and see through the use of social media. Results showed that greater number of respondents are using smartphone and the longest use of social media is 15 years. On the different social media accounts, Facebook is the common use. The reason for visiting social media is communicating with family. Pinoy trending page on Facebook was the most frequent and highest number of people visiting it while majority of them saw the article about President Duterte criticizing the church, four times. In addition to that, reading beyond the article was the top 1 that respondents are doing when they are judging the new that they accessed. Through the use of different networks, it helps the people to receive political news, local, national and even from different country. Respondents agreed that they do an investigation first on the news that they receive and it helps them to be more careful in trusting news from social media.