A new study examining media influence on fake news dissemination in Thailand has revealed that individuals who consider traditional media as their primary influential source are more likely to share false information compared to those who rely on online platforms.<\/p>\n
The research, conducted by Surachanee Sriyai and Akkaranai Kwanyou using nationwide survey data of 1,675 participants, challenges the common perception that social media is primarily responsible for the spread of misinformation.<\/p>\n
“Individuals who are most influenced by traditional media are significantly more likely to share fake news compared to those who are most influenced by online media,” the study found, with traditional media consumers scoring 3.01 on willingness to share fake news versus 2.86 for online media consumers on a 5-point scale.<\/p>\n
Interestingly, the researchers found no statistically significant difference in how the two groups evaluated the credibility of fake news, suggesting that media consumption patterns affect sharing behavior more than belief formation.<\/p>\n
The study also revealed distinct demographic patterns in media consumption. Younger individuals, typically in their late 30s to early 40s, are more likely to get information from social media and messaging apps, while those in their mid-40s and above tend to rely more heavily on traditional outlets like television and radio.<\/p>\n
Social media emerged as the most influential media type overall, with 48.2% of respondents identifying it as their primary source of information, followed by television (27%) and news websites (22.7%).<\/p>\n
The research builds on existing theories including the Elaboration Likelihood Model, which outlines two routes to persuasion: a central route involving deep, systematic processing of information, and a peripheral route relying on less effortful, heuristic processing.<\/p>\n
The findings challenge the prevailing narrative that social media platforms, with their decentralized nature and algorithmic amplification, are the primary culprits in spreading misinformation. Instead, they suggest that the relationship between media consumption and disinformation is more complex than previously thought.<\/p>\n
“This contradicts the recent stream of thinking that social media can promote the dissemination of false information more than its traditional counterparts,” the authors note.<\/p>\n
The researchers acknowledge certain limitations in their study, including the inability to identify specific traditional media outlets that respondents consumed, which could vary significantly in quality and journalistic standards.<\/p>\n
The study’s findings have significant implications for media literacy initiatives and efforts to combat disinformation in Thailand and potentially other Southeast Asian countries. As digital media consumption continues to rise, understanding how different types of media influence information processing and sharing behaviors becomes increasingly important for developing effective interventions against fake news.<\/p>\n
As Thailand navigates an evolving media landscape, this research highlights the need for a nuanced approach to addressing disinformation that considers both traditional and digital information sources, rather than focusing exclusively on online platforms.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Traditional Media Linked to Higher Fake News Sharing in Thailand, Study Finds A new study examining media influence on fake news dissemination in Thailand has revealed that individuals who consider traditional media as their primary influential source are more likely to share false information compared to those who rely on online platforms. The research, conducted<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":5316,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[32],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-5315","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-social-media"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sawahsolutions.com\/dis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5315","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sawahsolutions.com\/dis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sawahsolutions.com\/dis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sawahsolutions.com\/dis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sawahsolutions.com\/dis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5315"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/sawahsolutions.com\/dis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5315\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5317,"href":"https:\/\/sawahsolutions.com\/dis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5315\/revisions\/5317"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sawahsolutions.com\/dis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5316"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sawahsolutions.com\/dis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5315"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sawahsolutions.com\/dis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5315"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sawahsolutions.com\/dis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5315"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}