Online News Source Selection, Acceptance, and Sharing Behavior: A Study on Demographic Effects and Political Spectrum

In response to the proliferation of fake news, the ability to examine online news validity has become increasingly important. Using a survey, we study Hongkongers’ news source selection habits, how they judge news’s trustworthiness/validity, and their responses to perceived fake news. Our results indicate that education and age significantly impact fake news identification practices and online news sources. Also, people’s political beliefs influence their ability to distinguish between true and fake news and their willingness to share. Notably, in most situations, progovernment people and centralists have a similar level of willingness to share true and fake news related to politics and health. Surprisingly, prodemocracy people are only willing to share antiestablishment news that they perceive to be true, but not other kinds of news, including health-related news that they perceive to be true.