Fact-Checking or Not? News Verification Behaviours of Young People in Hong Kong

Abstract

This paper discusses the factors affecting the behaviours for coping with fake news among young people. The data were collected from a survey conducted in late 2019, which sampled 2112 secondary school students from 21 partnering schools. This study aims to understand the opinions and behaviours of teenagers towards disinformation when fake news was prevalent during the anti-extradition bill protests in Hong Kong. It finds that awareness of the problem alone had limited influence in facilitating coping strategies. Civic awareness and interaction with social media were useful predictors of internal and external coping behaviours, respectively. Confidence about one’s ability to detect fake news was a crucial factor, yet a concern for the value of truth stood out as the strongest predictor of fake news coping behaviours.