Abstract:
The main objective of this research was to explore the impact of social media credibility on the usage of news regarding five dimensions: local, national politics, international politics, disaster and relief activities, and entertainment news in the social media. Non-probability convenience sampling method has been employed by using an adapted questionnaire. Data was collected from 164 respondents including male and female students of universities situated in Rawalpindi and Islamabad, Pakistan. The data was analysed by using Pearson correlation and regression analysis. The findings showed that there is a strong relationship between social media credibility and the usage of news — local, national politics, and international politics, disaster and relief activities and entertainment news — in the social media. The results of the social media credibility and news about disaster and relief activities were found to be most significant as 56.8 per cent variation, in usage of news about disaster and relief activities due to the social media credibility, was calculated. This research helped in identifying individual perceptions about social media and concluded that, in order to increase the usage of social media and enhance its credibility, people’s perception needs to be changed. Also, the government, NGOs, political parties, online media outlets and particularly the regulatory authorities related to social media must take into consideration news about disaster and relief activities and international political news as the most important factor which are impacted by social media credibility.
