Examining information accuracy on social media: empirical evident from United Arab Emirates (UAE)

Abstract

Social Media has become an important source of obtaining information and publishing news and articles. Hence, the impact of social media is an important subject for study because journalists are competing with citizens in the dissemination of news. The validity of information on social media is questionable. The focus of this research is identifying the concept of credibility and the prominent credibility standards that must apply in publishing of news. This study examined the relationship between traditional factors in media, acceptance to use of technology, interactive media, quality of news source with the impact of social media. The questionnaire was distributed to 175 respondents from 685 registered journalists in United Arab Emirates by using simple random sampling. The data were analyzed using Partial Least Squares-Structural Equation Modeling (PLS-SEM) to verify the relationships between the variables. The findings of the study largely support the hypothesized relationships proposed in the study model. The findings have implications for knowledge of theories in understanding the relationship between using social media and its impact on the society. The practical contribution of this study will assist journalists in dealing with news on social media, in order to develop the best journalism practices, and makes recommendation for future research directions.