Prevention of the spread of fake news and hoaxes in Nigeria: from penalisation to the promotion of informtion literacy

Abstract

Globally, information has been an integral part of any society. Right from the period of Guttenberg’s printing press to this age of advancement in new media technologies, information has remained key to the development of all societies. Today, the explosion in these technologies, especially the social media has made access to information much easier, thereby keeping the traditional media on their toes as they strive to compete with these alternative media in the collection, production and dissemination of news. The speed with which these new media churn out information makes the presence of fake news and hoaxes inevitable. This study adopted a documentary research method to generate the information necessary to investigate the spread of fake news and hoaxes in Nigeria. A total of 265 articles were drawn from Google Scholar search and after a close examination, only 20 articles were included for analysis. Findings from the study revealed that some grave implications of fake news and hoaxes sharing were identified, such as death, conflict escalation, political hostility and societal panic. People were motivated to share news mainly because of their civic obligation to inform others and provide advice or warning. These motivations, together with other contextual reasons, such as media control, interpersonal trust and youth unemployment had led to the proliferation of fake news and hoaxes in Nigeria. The researchers concluded that there is a need to increase fake news and hoaxes awareness, media and information literacy among Nigerians. It was recommended that social media users should be constantly informed through adequate advertisements, workshops, conferences and other forms of sensitisation about the consequences of fake news and hoaxes sharing, how to spot and differentiate fake news and hoaxes with made-up news and why it is imperative to be self-aware before forwarding any message.