Credibility of Social Media News in Broadcasting: A study of three Radio Stations in Port Harcourt.

Abstract

Social media news cannot be denied the speed with which it spreads once the news breaks and the reliance by the traditional mass media as sources of the news they publish. However, the credibility of social media news has been questioned by many. This paper seeks to examine the extent of credibility attached to breaking news on social media by Treasure FM, Nigeria Info and Family Love FM, all in Port Harcourt. The main objective of the study is to critically examine the use of social media news by the three radio stations in Port Harcourt and how they verify the reliability of the sources of such news. The research design used in the study is survey, with in-depth interview as the tool for data collection. Findings show that among the three radio stations, Treasure 98.5 FM put the credibility of social media news at 30%, the Nigeria Info 92.3 FM put the credibility of social media news at less than 50% while the Family Love 97.7 FM hardly sees any credibility in social media news. The three radio stations, however, agree that social media news is the most timely and cost effective when the source is verifiable. Among others, it is recommended that while the use of breaking news on social media can help in timely news broadcast and reduction in cost, it is necessary that radio stations carry out in-depth verification of social media news sources before such news stories are broadcast to avoid embarrassment to professionalism