An Analysis of Facebook News Feed and Fake News in Nigeria: A Case Study of Jos South Plateau State - Nigeria

Fake news has over the years constituted a serious problem to Journalism and the society at large. The problem of fake news was excreted by the advent of social media which changed the dynamics of information dissemination and sharing. This paper is an analysis of Facebook newsfeed and fake news in Nigeria. The paper was anchored on the Technological Determinism Theory and The Gatekeeping Theory respectively. The former presupposes that, communication technology has exceedingly changed the way we send out messages and receive them from the opposite while the latter presupposes that, unwanted, sensible and controversial information are removed by gatekeepers in communication process which helps to control the society or a group and letting them in a right path. The data generated was collected using mix-method survey that combines the questionnaire and interview methods to elicit responses from two hundred and seventy-nine (279) respondents who were randomly and purposively sampled among social media users in Jos South metropolis and three (3) journalists from NUJ (Nigerian Union of Journalists) Plateau State Chapter. The data generated were analysed using simple percentage and narrative analysis respectively. The outcome of the study reveals that lack of regulatory and gatekeeping mechanisms as well as activities of untrained journalists are the reasons for the prevalence of fake news on Facebook hence fact checking is still not being considered by Facebook users. The study recommends that NUJ should develop a comprehensive digital database for bloggers and online journalists. This will enable easy tracking of online news sources and decontamination of Facebook from misinformation and disinformation.