Real Research Paper Copyupdatedupdatedfinal
Real Research Paper Copyupdatedupdatedfinal
A Research Presented to
Senior High School Department of Children of Fatima School, Inc.
Mabiga, Mabalacat City, Pampanga
By:
12 ICT - A
February 2019
Effects of Fake News on Facebook to ICT Students
1.0 Introduction
Facebook is a social media network in which information are widely spread
wherein, 21st century learners spend most of the time browsing Facebook obtain additional
created quite an impact to the students. However, false information spreading across
Facebook rises and learners are threatened because of the different cases about false
information. Most of the social media users are learners who are not aware whether a piece
of information is genuine or not because of how it convinces them that the given
information is true.
Social Media Network creates a large influence on netizens. However, because of this
matter, an abusive way of using Social Media Network in terms of spreading false
information have developed, creating an impact to users who lacks literacy in determining
false information. Based on the article of Rappler (2017) stated that there are now 47
million active Facebook accounts in the Philippines and the Philippines is the fastest
growing app market in the Southeast Asia. This means that if there are a lot of users, there
is a big chance of fake news spreading throughout social media very easily since not all of
The barriers to entry for producing fake news have been diminished due to the rise
of the internet, given how easy it is to set up a website or social media page and monetise it
through advertising. This has led to the spreading of fake news among news media outlets
The era of printing press as well as the simultaneous spread of literacy have stepped
up the spread of information wider. Burkhardt (2017) stated that, “Those who were literate
could easily use that ability to manipulate information to those who were not literate. As
more people became literate, it became more difficult to mislead by misrepresenting what
was written.”
After the era of printing press came the mass media era. In January 1926, there was
a broadcast done by Father Ronald Arbuthnott Knox called “Broadcasting the Barricades”
on BBC Radio. During the broadcast, Knox stated that London was under attack by
Communists, Parliament was under siege, and the Savoy Hotel and Big Ben had been
blown up. Those who tuned in late did not hear the disclaimer that the broadcast was a
spoof and not an actual news broadcast. This caused a minor panic among listeners until
further explanation is done, as this occurred only a few months after the General Strike in
England.
This was followed by Orson Welles’s War of the Worlds broadcast in 1938, an
adaptation of the science fictional book in 1898 with the same title. This resulted to the
minor panic of those who were unfamiliar with the story in United States, as there were few
clues indicating that Martian invasion were fictional. Although the broadcast was not meant
to be fake news, those who had no idea about the state of the broadcast being fiction were
affected.
With these given occurrences of fake news throughout history, Burkhardt affirmed
that “it is easy to see that fake news has existed for a long time.” Ranging from amusement
to death, fake news has a wide purpose depending on the authors’ intentions or whether it
was intended or not. “The intended and unintended consequences of fake news of the pre-
internet era were profound and far-reaching for the time” said Burkhardt. As methods of
Access to the internet was possible for anyone who had a computer. “Making
information available on the internet became a new way to promote products as well as
claims tend to be remembered even if the information is flagged as suspect (Lazer & Baum,
2017).
According to Bolman (2017), fake news on social media is a behavioral trade within
an attention exchange. News that is often surprising, scary, or anger-provoking, fake news
triggers emotional reactions by people who encounter it. Meanwhile, anger and other high-
False information may come as plain texts, infographics, chain messages, etc., as
Ciamplagia (2016) reiterated that, “fake news stories are intended to mislead people tend to
get hundreds of thousands of shares while accurate information sources lag behind.” One of
the factors that make a false information convincing is the use of simple words on how they
deliver it.
The study focused on the factors that make fake news spread faster and how it
affects ICT Student, especially Facebook as the social media platform whereas it was
The study determined why fake news spread faster than real news affecting 21st
century learners. In line with that, the researchers conducted this study and focused on the
Research Questions:
1. How many ICT Students of CFSI Mabiga have been victim of fake news?
2. What are the factors affecting the fast spread of fake news?
a. Convincing Delivery
c. Entertainment Purposes
The scope of the study is how fake news spread faster, especially on the social media
platform Facebook, and how it affects ICT Senior High School Students. The study was
Simulacrum
Students of CFSI
60 out of 120 ICT Students
Mabiga have been
Convincing Delivery
2. What are the factors
Lack of Awareness on
affecting the fast
Information
spread of fake news?
Entertainment Purposes
Students? Misleading
Conceptual Framework
Lack of Misleading
Awareness on
Information
Manipulate human
Entertainment
emotions
Purposes
Figure 2 shows the conceptual framework on how fake news spread faster on Facebook
statement he mentioned, fake news stories that are intended to mislead people tend to get
hundreds of thousands of shares while accurate information sources lag behind. The ability
of fake news outlets to create website that look professional is what Ciamplagia said makes
“Most of what we've seen in the industry of fake news is based on the idea that
people really want to get information from a diverse set of sources, but they can get
deceived in the process. Social media tends to personalize what we are interested in,” as
“The mainstream media is reliable, and it is ironic that people who don't think so
are turning to even less reliable sources,” a statement from Steinberg which Mack also
supported. He stated that if something that is seen on a fake news source and does not
eventually show up in mainstream media, which probably means that it is not verified.
In order to get rid of fake news, Mack also introduced Steinberg’s statement, “There
needs to be more media literacy education, teach kids at an early age what sources are
credible and what sources aren’t, so they won't believe everything they see on the internet.”
The media can try combating the spread of fake news sources by talking more about how
distinguish reliable sources from unreliable sources and by using social media to explain to
For millennials, life without the internet is no life at all. It is often a primary focus
nowadays as based on the study, 75% of teens are online several times per day and an
important means by which they communicate with the world and take in new information.
While information can be found in various sources across the internet, an overwhelming
majority of teens and pre-teens tend to gather their information from social media sites like
Facebook and Twitter. Unfortunately, Facebook is not known as a credible source for news.
The recent outbreak of “fake news" has hit social media sites particularly hard, as these
types of platforms are set up to propagate information at record speed regardless of source
or content. In addition, teens are particularly bad at discriminating between real and fake
news. (McCusker, 2017) Furthermore, he added that the danger of fake news lies in its
ability to appear like any other news story when taken at face value. However, the intent
behind publishing fake news is to deliberately mislead readers into believing one set of
“facts" over another. Creators of fake news carefully craft attention-grabbing headlines that
appeal to a certain group of people (Republicans, Democrats, Teens, Millenials etc.) to get
the most clicks and ad revenue possible. Most of the information found within these fake
news stories is misleading, if not demonstrably false, which can lead to confusion and
Most users are initially unaware whether a piece of information is genuine or not.
Trewinnard (2015) points out that users tend to share these posts as soon as this piece of
information has been posted. Later on, someone informs them about the post being fake
and these users will delete what they have shared from their news feed. These
With these given situations, Facebook recently became the first company to
implement an early solution directly addressing the problem: A new option to flag news
feed items as “It’s a false news story”. If enough users flag a link as “false news” then it
will appear less in the News Feed and will show a warning: “Many people on Facebook
have reported that this story contains false information.” (Trewinnard, 2015)
“Fake news is crafting a lie, backed up with a set of supporting arguments selected
because they will convince the intended readers, not because they are true. A fake news
campaign involves creating a set of different lies, each backed up by a different set of
(Wharton,2018)
In January 2017, another project was launched by Facebook. The Journalism Project
stated in Pamintuan’s journal was “to promote news or media literacy and curb news
hoaxes. It has also started using flags to fact-check stories that go viral on Facebook.
Fake news may seem new, but the platform used is the only new thing about it.
Propaganda has been around for centuries, and the internet is only the latest form of
2017)
Identifying fake or false news can be very tricky nowadays especially when people
are bombarded with many news every single day. Most of the time, people do not have
such expertise to identify and verify the information and that is why people do not know if
the news is fake or real. As part of the society, people should have the ability to determine
According to the study by Haut in the year 2017, which surveyed 7,804 students
from middle school age to college age, asking questions about information online. The
study described young people’s ability to reason about information they find online as
“bleak.” It further suggests that young people’s inability to recognize untrue information
threatens democracy itself. In one part of the study, 44 undergraduate students from three
universities were shown a tweet about gun control from a left–leaning polling website and
asked about its trustworthiness. Less than a third of the students properly identified the bias
The researchers also tested high school and college students to see if they could find
the bias in a site about minimum wage. The students were shown a website sponsored by a
left-leaning D.C. lobbying firm, then asked whether it was a reputable source. Ninety-three
percent of college students and 91 percent of high school students surveyed never checked
other sites to see if the information was reputable, according to the study.
executive director of the media literacy initiative Project Look Sharp. She said there is a
problem in having so much information online without restrictions on what gets published.
Scheibe said young people use social media much more than other news sources without
Junior Christine Valderrama said she gets her news from social media and said she
does fact-check some of the news she reads online but that this is not the case for everyone.
“Probably happens a lot because everyone sees what they see, and they don’t double-think
“One crisis is the fact that anybody can put stuff out there. The other crisis is the
fact that people believe it and don’t ask questions,” Scheibe said. “We have to raise a
generation of people who understand that you cannot take everything, or anything that you
Scheibe said she does not see the problem of fake news affecting older generations
as much because they are inherently skeptical of the news they see on Facebook.
Sophomore Kyle Davis, who said he gets some of his news from Facebook, shares
Scheibe’s view that the younger generation has a problem with believing whatever it reads
online. “A lot of people do just rely on social media entirely for their news, and I think that
a bigger problem with our generation, too, is people don’t just necessarily read that
information, but then they go and spread it, too,” Davis said.
Based on the article published by Anjum Khan (2018), fake news is another hazard
of technology advancement and networking because it always existed but now as people
are active on social media websites, they see various viral posts that include news, content
and pictures which affect their mindset towards certain things/people/scenarios to a great
extent. The Fake news has a wide reach through the INTERNET and most people fall for
such news because these are conveyed in such a way that it seems actual. Students are the
most vulnerable to such fake news viral posts because they are young minds and have little
knowledge of the factual data and hence, they easily get influenced by the fake news
sources. Here are the sources of fake news, types of fake news and what steps students
should take to save themselves and others from this trending hazard –
Sources of fake news –Social media websites like Facebook, Twitter, and WhatsApp etc.,
Fake news websites, Fake news websites using names of real media channels or websites
with slight difference in the name or website URL. for example – real news website:
1. For entertainment purposes– Use of pictures and content that is used to entertain
the readers and it has nothing factual, but the audience does not understand it is based on
facts or not.
for fun, but some people develop this understanding that engineering course students
2. Use of fake image or title for Irrelevant content – It relates two things which have
no logical similarity, where photos' title or news/article headline promotes a story, but the
ill/wounded but then the content mentions that he is shooting a scene for his upcoming
movie. Such headlines/title/pictures make the reader click on the link and increase the user
count for these websites which help them (websites) make revenue.
and video, but is manipulated in some way to tell a different story by misuse of
For example – A viral video of a mother making her child do homework in a strict manner,
but it is interpreted as ‘Some teacher harassing kid’. People share such videos without
2. Completely baseless content – This type of story is completely fake (i.e. never
For example – Some group spreading fake news regarding religious beliefs of some people
3. Rumors spread by blind followers – Sometimes, just to make people a follower /to
increase fan following of some person, their blind followers spread words which are
not true.
For example – Followers of some politician spread fake stories about his good deeds/work
for society so that people start following him and vote for him.
Overall, a conclusion can be made that fake news is intended to influence the young
minds such as for political gain/influence or sometimes, people want to show off their
connections with popular people, organisation, brand or anything that is of high importance
for people.
Awareness regarding fake news among school students is essential because they
should know the truth/fact about things in their surroundings and should be protected from
the negative impacts of such news. Students should not believe everything they see, read, or
hear. There is always a different story than what is conveyed through these fake news
One of the articles in the Philippines published by Patricia Francisco (2017) stated
that it is no lie that millennials comprise a huge part of society, and they are not immune to
the many issues happening in the country. One issue that widely affects millennials is the
spread of what we call “fake news”. Born at a time when technology is continually
evolving, it is a given that most millennials are on social media platforms such as
Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. These social media sites have been helpful to many since
they were developed. Because of them, it is easier to disseminate information to people all
over the world. The same social media sites have also been avenues for negative things,
however. These days, the spread of fake news on the Internet is getting out of hand.
Millennials are widely affected by the issue of “fake news” since most of social
media users use this as a way to distress and entertain themselves. People who believe
stories from pages that feature fake news. What is worse is that they also share the posts
and influence others. Millennials are not the ones who are at fault. Neither are those who
share fake news. They are just the ones who are affected and victimized. People knowingly
share fake news because they think the content is hilarious or entertaining. There are people
who do not realize that spreading fake news can lead to conflict and misinformation. Fake
2.0 Methodology
A. Research Design
approach, is a scientific method which involves observing and describing the behavior of a
subject without influencing it in any way. The study aims to determine how quick fake
news can be disseminated across Facebook and how it affects ICT students.
The study utilized quota sampling on selecting the respondents. It is a kind of non-
probability sampling which means that members of a population have an unequal chance to
be selected. Quota sampling only selects the members of the population who have met first
by the researchers. There are 194 ICT Students of Grade 11 and 12 of Children of Fatima
Mabiga Senior High School as respondents for the academic year 2018-2019. Out of this
number of respondents, the researchers chose 120 ICT Students of both levels which
include 15 males and 15 females from Grade 11 ICT A; 15 males and 15 females from
Grade 11 ICT B; 15 males and 15 females from Grade 12 ICT A; and 15 males and 15
females from Grade 12 ICT B, a total of 120 ICT students. The researchers used a survey
questionnaire consisting of questions that corresponds to this study that were answered by
C. Research Locale
This research was conducted at Children of Fatima School Inc. Mabiga Senior High
School. The school was established in the year 2017. It is headed by Mrs. Presentacion G.
Pineda and associated with the Principal Mr. Jojit F. Tobias. The Grade 12 students of
D. Research Ethics
The researchers ensured that their standards/procedures in gathering data, to help them
achieve the expected amount of data from the chosen number of respondents. There were
no discriminations on the part of participants of this study and treated respectively and fair
E. Research Instrument
questions. The instrument used by the researcher was questionnaire checklist to gather the
needed data. Open – ended options were provided to accommodate to free formatted views
related to the topics or issues. In this way, the instrument is authorized to obtain valid
responses from the students. In addition, the instrument was validated by the research
The first step before going to the testing proper is to make a request letter. Upon
approval, the researchers retrieved the request letter. The Focal Person, as well as the
research adviser were selected in the administration. In administering the questionnaire, the
researchers were given allotted time for vacant to avoid distraction of class discussion. The
student responses were given enough time to answer the questions. After data gathering, the
researchers collected it for tallying the scores and applied the statistical treatment to be used
G. Statistical Treatment
The study analyzed the collected data by utilizing a formula called weighted mean
(also known as weighted average). This is almost equivalent as to finding the average, yet
the quantity of respondents must be multiplied according to the category. The combined
result of the product will be split to the total number of respondents, which will result to the
weighted average.
ΣWX
Weighted Mean =
Σ W
Where:
Table 1.1 shows the number of students who encountered fake news. Twenty –
eight students from Grade 11 – ICT (A) encountered fake news and two students were not.
On the other hand, twenty-four students from 11 – ICT (B) indicated yes and five students
stated no. the Grade 12 – ICT (A), twenty students have witnessed fake news and ten
students did not. Lastly, 12 – ICT (B), eleven students have spotted fake news and nineteen
students did not. Students who encountered fake news (answered yes) were asked to give
examples of fake news. Most of the students’ given examples were the suspension of
Scale:
Table 1.2 shows the certainty of students on how sure they are with their given example
of fake news. The results in every section used scaling which will be getting the weighted
mean. 11 – ICT (A) got 3.25 stating Very Sure, 11 – ICT (B) got 2.83 (Sure) while 12 –
ICT (A) got 3.5 (Very Sure) and 12 – ICT (B) got 2.6 (Sure). Results from 12 – ICT (A)
got the most result, while 12 – ICT (B) was the least among the four sections.
2.) What are the following factors affecting the fast spread of fake news?
Scale:
Table 2 shows the overall average of every grade level & section of ICT Strand
whereas the three factors on how fake news spread faster are already stated and given. It
has choices which are Strongly Agree (4.0 – 3.1), Agree (3.0 – 2.1), Disagree (2.0 – 1.1)
Children of Fatima School Inc., Mabiga SHS 19
Effects of Fake News on Facebook to ICT Students
and Strongly Disagree (1.0 – 1.1). The researchers acquired the average among all the 30
students per section as the result. First factor is Convincing Delivery where 11 – ICT got
3.14 while 12 – ICT got 3.35. For the second one, Lack of Awareness on Information, 11 –
ICT got 3.14, then for 12 – ICT has 3.47. Lastly, for Entertainment Purposes, 11 – ICT has
2.84. For grade 12 – ICT has 3.20. Based on these findings, the factor “Lack of Awareness
of Information” has the highest result, while “Entertainment Purposes” got the lowest. This
is supported by a study conducted in Stanford by Sam Haut (2017), the researchers tested
high school and college students to see and asked whether an information was a reputable
source. Ninety- three percent of college students and Ninety-one percent of high school
students surveyed never checked other sites to see if the information was reputable. In
3.) Effects of factors to ICT students from the spreading Fake news
Mostly, students have answered that they were confused and cannot distinguish whether
the information is true or not. In short, they were lacking on information that they do not
know and was just convinced because on how it delivered. As supported by Wharton
(2018), Fake news is composed of distorted information, supported with selected arguments
which aim to convince the target readers, not because they are true. A fake news campaign
Majority of the students stated that it affects them because of too much use of social
media which leads them to share the information too without knowing reliable sources
whether it is true or not. In an interview conducted by Sam Haut in a Stanford study (2017)
which Davis said most users usually get their news from social media which he thinks is a
threat with our generation. People don’t just absorb that information, but also share it too.
Other respondents encountered news which are Death hoaxes about famous artists
which considered as fake news fall under Entertainment Purposes, “Fake news is another
hazard of technology advancement and networking because it always existed but now as
people are active on social media websites, they see various viral posts that include news,
content and pictures which affect their mindset towards certain things/people/scenarios to a
4.0 Conclusion
In summary, this research illustrated key findings. First, the more an individual
reads a news, the more he/she will believe the news base on how it convinced them.
Second, most students in ICT Strand have already encountered fake news especially
on Facebook. In this study, the research findings stated that out of the three factors, “Lack
of Awareness on Information” has the strongest relation to why fake news spread faster
while “Entertainment Purposes” has the weakest relation. It also appeared on how ICT
Students were being affected by this phenomenon. Students were being confused and
mislead by the news because of lacked on reliable sources for each news that has many
As Ciamplagia (2016) stated that "fake news stories are intended to mislead people
tend to get hundreds of thousands of shares while accurate information sources lag behind.”
One of the fake news they have encountered on Facebook is usually the suspension of
classes and death hoaxes about famous artists. These students are sure based on the data
that have been collected. Once they saw a news about this, they will share it immediately
and others will start to spread it more without even knowing the sources or looking for
more information if it is true or not. In short, they were lacking awareness on information.
Furthermore, Trewinnard (2015) points out that user tend to share these posts as
soon as this piece of information has been posted. Later on, someone informs them about
the post being fake and these users will delete what they have shared from their news feed.
Although students had lower trust levels on social media as a news outlet, they were likely
to prefer social media as a news outlet to other sources, citing reasons of convenience,
Recommendation
For Students, they can avoid news that are not true and need to check the credible or
reliable sources before sharing the information. For them to be able to understand how fake
news can really affect people once this false information spread all throughout social media
especially on Facebook. This also informs them about the traditional methods of how fake
news was spread during the era of printing press and mass media.
For Educators, can help them to guide students on how to spot fake news, how to
determine whether an information is true or not. He/she can teach them how to become
media literate so that students will not easily influence by the spreading fake news.
For the community, people will be more aware that fake news has seriously caught
on. It has greatly influenced the way media platforms operate, the public’s perception of
information, and even how governments confront its proliferation. The internet radically
changed the way news is published. Much like the invention of the printing press, the
internet allowed more people to publish their thoughts and chipped away at the news from
publishing companies.
For Future Researchers, can use this as future references, give highlights and ideas
about the said study. He/she can use the data in this research for assisting in design issues
and choice of statistical treatment and methods for future validation studies.
5.0 Bibliography
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