This research investigates the ways in which different groups of media users have different tendencies in consuming and believing fake news. These tendencies are examined through: (1) analysis of association of age and income level with the pattern of media consumption; (2) analysis of association of age and income level with types of media that is perceived as the most trustworthy. Using systematic random sampling, this study examines 400 households in Semarang, Central Java, with level of confidence of 95%.

This article explains the ways in which a digital media literacy campaign was conducted to help groups of adolescent to identify fake news or hoax and to prevent the further dissemination of fake news. A number of research have shown that young generation, or popularly known as millennials, is the age group of media users that has the highest tendency to read and to spread hoax or fake news. This is also tied to the fact that millennial spend more time on the Internet, and therefore have higher exposure to many various types information, including fake news. Based on the digital media campaign programs that was conducted in several public and private high schools in Semarang, Indonesia, this article will explicate the initial condition regarding the ability of high-school students in recognizing and identifying fake news before the digital media literacy campaign, and then explain how the campaign helping students to improve the ability to do so. This article will further describe the challenges faced in the typical media literacy campaign and several suggestions to overcome those challenges in future digital media literacy programs.

Concerns about materialism among children are strengthening. Media, especially television and advertising, are acknowledged to be an extensive channel that promotes materialism. Recently, dress up role-playing games, which are mushrooming in online space and mostly played by girls and female adolescents, facilitate active experiences of bountiful consumption simulations. The present study identifies the influence of dress up games on socializing materialism in children. Based on a survey of 144 young girls aged 7 to 13 in Semarang, Indonesia, the findings indicate that the frequency of dress up gameplay influences children to become materialistic. However, the effect of dress up gameplay is not significant when age and motivation to play are included in the analysis.

The article is intended to offer the strategy to tackle the wrong and unverified information related to health issues. It is based on the data of a survey in East Java, the province with the second largest population in Indonesia, and the second largest economic in the country. The data shows that people in East Java admitted that they were expose to many incorrect and unverified health information, through various channels, such as personal chatting applications, mainstream/conventional media, and social media. The survey revealed that people responded differently to unverified health information. Some found clarity, but others felt anxious. The fact that people think they can get clarity though the information from social media and the Internet, are not sufficiently verified is upsetting. Trusting untested or clinically unproven health information can be harmful and dangerous. A way to counter the propagation of untested health information or unverified information sources is to use the same information channels to distribute the guidance to inform people how to identify the wrong and untested health information. And, by the same measure it could also empowering people to fight against such false information.

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The Covid-19 vaccination rate continues to increase, it is important to pay attention to the possibility of a breakthrough infection, which is a viral infection that occurs after a person has been vaccinated. This is a case that is expected to occur in some of those who have received the vaccine, as no vaccine for any disease is 100 percent effective. During the time of living in this period of the Covid-19 pandemic, people are always exposed to information about the dangers or threats of exposure to the virus, known as health risk messages. This study was conducted to explain how a number of individual characteristics in the health risk message information environment correlate to their attitudes towards the risk of exposing Covid-19. This online survey of people who have received the Covid-19 vaccine found that several variables related to lifestyle and disease history were correlated to perceptions of the risk of exposure to Covid-19. It also confirms that there is a positive correlation between awareness of the amount of risk an individual has and perceptions of the risk of exposing Covid-19.

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This research aims to examine the ways in which practices of information productions and distributions are shifting in the Internet era, particularly in the production of extreme speech that is claimed to be news. There are many information platforms on the Internet proclaimed as 'news sites", but instead of conveying valuable information to the readers, they are used to circulate opinionated pieces and propaganda. The popularity of user-generated content -where users were enabled not only to consume but also to produce and to distribute digital content -used to be hailed optimistically as a form of democratization that will to give chances to citizens to voice their social, economic, political, and cultural concerns. However, the recent development shows that the freedom and the easy-access offered by the Internet have been used to propagate negative content and sectarian sentiments. This research conducts analysis of ten 'news outlets' that were banned by Indonesian government (KOMINFO) that had been considered spreading hatred and sectarian spirit. This research will examine closely this so-called news in terms of their content, tone, and the parties that are confronted through the content. This research argues that the once embraced users-generated content as alternative news by citizen had evolved to be a form of extreme speech propagator.