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Political News Monitoring and Questioning the Trustworthiness of News among Turkish University Students in the Infodemic COVID-19 Environment

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Abstract

The COVID-19 pandemic, declared by the World Health Organization in March 2020, has had a significant impact on daily practices worldwide. Governments implemented various strategies such as curfews, travel restrictions, and stay-at-home directives to mitigate the risks associated with the virus. In Turkey, most educational institutions transitioned to online tools, posing challenges for university students who faced educational obstacles and social isolation from their campuses. This study explores the effects of COVID-19 on university students’ interest in politics and their consumption of political news. It relies on data collected by the Yeditepe University Global Education and Culture Research and Application Center (KEKAM) for the “University Students’ Educational and Social Adaptation during the COVID-19 in Turkey” project. In this study, we investigated how university students, a relatively highly educated group, were affected by the infodemic environment during the COVID-19 pandemic. Our analysis focused on university students’ consumption of political news, their interest in politics, and their propensity to question the reliability of news sources. We hypothesized that heightened news consumption would lead to interest in politics and greater skepticism regarding the credibility of news sources. Using a mixed-method approach that involved regression analyses and cartographic visualization, we found a positive relationship between increased news consumption and university students’ interest in politics. Additionally, students with higher levels of news consumption exhibited a greater tendency to question the reliability of news sources and information. These findings underscore the importance of critically evaluating information in an infodemic environment.

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Acknowledgements

We would like to thank Yeditepe University Global Education and Culture Research and Application Center (KEKAM) for providing the data used in this study and Yeditepe University Cartography Laboratory for their contributions in data visualization.

Funding

This work was supported by Yeditepe University within the scope of Yeditepe University Research Projects and Scientific Activities of Yeditepe University (YAP). Project number YAP-AP-SOB-22023.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. French Political Science and International Relations Department, Yeditepe University, Istanbul, Turkey

    Gökçe Bayındır Goularas, Işıl Zeynep Turkan İpek & Nihan Kocaman Mert

  2. Political Science and International Relations Department (EN), Yeditepe University, Istanbul, Turkey

    Edanur Erözer

  3. Computer Engineering Department, Yeditepe University, Istanbul, Turkey

    Dionysis Goularas

Authors
  1. Gökçe Bayındır Goularas
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  2. Işıl Zeynep Turkan İpek
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  3. Edanur Erözer
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  4. Nihan Kocaman Mert
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  5. Dionysis Goularas
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Contributions

The first author collaborated with other authors designing the research project, undertook responsibilities for data collection, interpretation, and analysis of data and, contributed to writing and reviewing processes for the final version to be published. The second author made the research design, pursued data collection, contributed to the analysis tool and interpretation of data, performed the analysis and wrote the result, analysis, and conclusion parts as well as reviewed it critically for important intellectual content. The third author was fully included in the research design, data collection, regression analysis, and writing the paper. The fourth author interpreted the data for cartography, performed the analysis, created maps, and reviewed the draft paper. The fifth and final author interpreted the data, performed the analysis, and reviewed the draft critically for the final version to be published.

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Işıl Zeynep Turkan İpek.

Ethics declarations

Ethical Approval and Consent to Participate

This study has been conducted in accordance with ethical standards. The survey used in the study has received approval from the Yeditepe University Ethics Committee. Informed consent forms were provided to all participants of the survey, and the participants voluntarily participated in the study based on their own consent.

Conflict of Interest

The authors declare no competing interests.

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Bayındır Goularas, G., Turkan İpek, I.Z., Erözer, E. et al. Political News Monitoring and Questioning the Trustworthiness of News among Turkish University Students in the Infodemic COVID-19 Environment. JAYS 7, 83–96 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1007/s43151-024-00117-2

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s43151-024-00117-2

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