Social Media as a Gateway to Information: Digital Literacy on Current Issues in Social Media

Abstract

The digital age has changed humans in accessing information from offline media to online media. The presence of digital media, such as smartphone help people get current issues quickly without limits of time and place. With advances in information technology, internet users not only can receive information but also send information in the form of comments and share information. The current internet media that has become a gateway for information is social media. This paper aims to discuss information dissemination on current issues in social media. The data sources for this paper were social media texts and online questionnaire results. The research question in this paper is what current issues are communicated in social media and how is the cyber communities’ digital literacy on current issues in social media. The research findings show that 90.03% of people access information through social media, the frequency of time spent with social media to access information is 81%, and the type of social media used to access information is Facebook (38.4%), WhatsApp (20.2%), YouTube (18.4%), Twitter (8.3%) and Tiktok (6.1%). Furthermore, the current issues that can be accessed by media users are covid-19 vaccination and intolerance. The major problem with social media as a gateway to information is the digital literacy of the cyber communities on the spread of fake news related to the Covid-19 vaccination and intolerance.

Using technology acceptance model to discuss factors in university employees’ behavior intention to apply social media

“…Due to the advance of time, social media are creative forms of education that enable business personnel to acquire information whenever and wherever they want (Sanjeev & Natrajan, 2021). Besides, the progress of data transmission speed allows university employees, who are used to using social media, more rapidly acquire new information than those not using them (Arafah & Hasyim, 2022). People could develop innovative service, deliver information, and educate the community to build a healthy society through social media (Jacobson et al, 2020).…”

Information Literacy and Discourse Analysis for Verifying Information among EFL Learners

“…As reported in previous research (e.g. Arafah & Hasyim, 2022;Gretter & Yadav, 2016), the digital world and the internet make it available to exchange information worldwide, some information is created or manipulated by unknown parties to mislead readers. Consequently, many social media users fall victim to such unauthentic information.…”

Digital Literacy: The Right Solution to Overcome the Various Problems of Meaning and Communication on Social Media

“…As a result, people learn how to use social media websites like Facebook, YouTube, WhatsApp, Twitter, Instagram, and TikTok on their own. Based on this study's survey results, 47% of participants say they can use social media platforms, including Facebook, YouTube, WhatsApp, Twitter, Instagram, and TikTok (Arafah & Hasyim, 2022).…”