Abstract:

Assessing the reliability of news on the social media platform has become an important topic for today’s social media users. The aim of the study is to determine the factors affecting the reliability of the news and the sharing of the news on social media and whether these factors differ according to the demographic variables of users. A survey designed to investigate the factors that influence users' news reliability and news sharing perceptions on social networks, was implemented to 260 participants in Eskişehir using the easy sampling method. The survey consists of three sections. The first part includes demographic questions, the second part includes the 21 material five-liquid scale used in social media use motivation, the third part includes the 14 material five-liquid scale used in social media use motivation. As a result, users are aware of the fake news and dezinformation on social media, and they think the organizations involved in professional journalism activities are more reliable. They point out that reliable news sources maintain their importance for news reliability and that the common worldview and values are taken into account in information and news reliability. The study shows that 'age' and 'education' are variables that differentiate on the motivation to confirm information and to obtain reliable information.

Keywords: