MEDIA LITERACY AND FAKE NEWS VULNERABILITY: A STUDY OF BODO MEDI-UM STUDENTS OF BODOLAND, ASSAM

Senwarn Sun Goyary; Perosh Jimmy Daimari

doi:10.29121/shodhkosh.v7.i13s.2026.8436

Authors

Senwarn Sun Goyary Research Scholar, Department of Mass Communication, Tezpur University, Assam, India
Perosh Jimmy Daimari Assistant Professor, Department of Mass Communication, Tezpur University, Assam, India

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.29121/shodhkosh.v7.i13s.2026.8436

Keywords:

Media Literacy, Fake News, Bodoland Territorial Region, Tribal Education

Abstract [English]

This study examines digital media literacy and fake news vulnerability among 342 Bodo medium secondary school students drawn from five dis-tricts of the Bodoland Territorial Region (BTR) in Assam, India. A cross-sectional survey of students enrolled in Grades 9 to 12 was conducted and the data were analyzed using descriptive statistics, Pearson correlations and multiple linear and binary logistic regression. The findings indicate that smartphones (92.7 per cent) constitute the dominant means of digital ac-cess for these students with messaging application and video-sharing plat-forms accounting for the bulk of their daily engagement. Verification prac-tices, however, remain limited: only 19.3 per cent of the respondents re-ported that they always verify information before sharing and 45.3 per cent indicated a high likelihood of forwarding content without prior verification. Among the predictors examined, confidence in evaluating credibility emerged as the strongest predictor of feeling equipped to identify fake news (β = .29, p < .001), while a higher valuation of source checking was found to reduce the odds of high sharing risk (OR = 0.77 per step, p = .046). Students enrolled in Class 12 were found to be more than twice as likely to fall with-in the high-risk group (OR = 2.22, p = .047). Results support the need for culturally and linguistically contextualized media literacy instruction in Bodo medium schools that emphasizes source verification, teacher and parent scaffolding and attention-focused accuracy prompts.

References

Allcott, H., & Gentzkow, M. (2017). Social media and fake news in the 2016 election. Journal of Economic Perspectives, 31(2), 211–236.

Aslett, K., Sanderson, Z., Godel, W., Persily, N., Nagler, J., & Tucker, J. A. (2023). Online searches to evaluate misinformation can increase its perceived veracity. Nature, 625(7995), 548–556.

Badrinathan, S. (2021). Educative interventions to combat misinformation: Evidence from a field experi-ment in India. American Political Science Review, 115(4), 1325–1341.

Basol, M., Roozenbeek, J., & van der Linden, S. (2020). Good news about bad news: Gamified inoculation boosts confidence and cognitive immunity against fake news. Journal of Cognition, 3(1), 2.

Boateng, G. O., Neilands, T. B., Frongillo, E. A., Melgar-Quiñonez, H. R., & Young, S. L. (2018). Best practices for developing and validating scales for health, social, and behavioral research. Frontiers in Public Health, 6, 149.

Brady, W. J., Wills, J. A., Jost, J. T., Tucker, J. A., & Van Bavel, J. J. (2017). Emotion shapes the diffusion of moralized content in social networks. PNAS, 114(28), 7313–7318.

Breakstone, J., Smith, M., Wineburg, S., et al. (2021). Students’ civic online reasoning: A national portrait. Educational Researcher, 50(8), 505–515.

Faul, F., Erdfelder, E., Buchner, A., & Lang, A.-G. (2009). Statistical power analyses using G*Power 3.1. Be-havior Research Methods, 41, 1149–1160.

Garimella, K., & Eckles, D. (2020). Images and misinformation in political groups: Evidence from WhatsApp in India. Harvard Kennedy School Misinformation Review.

Guess, A. M., Lerner, M., Lyons, B., Montgomery, J. M., Nyhan, B., Reifler, J., & Sircar, N. (2020). A digital me-dia literacy intervention increases discernment between mainstream and false news in the United States and India. PNAS, 117(27), 15536–15545.

Hobbs, R. (2010). Digital and media literacy: A plan of action. Aspen Institute.

Jeong, S. H., Cho, H., & Hwang, Y. (2012). Media literacy interventions: A meta-analytic review. Journal of Communication, 62(3), 454–472.

Jones-Jang, S. M., Mortensen, T., & Liu, J. (2019). Does media literacy help identification of fake news? In-formation literacy helps, but other literacies don’t. American Behavioral Scientist, 65(2), 371–388.

Kozyreva, A., Lewandowsky, S., & Hertwig, R. (2020). Citizens versus the Internet. Psychological Science in the Public Interest, 21(3), 103–156.

Lazer, D. M. J., et al. (2018). The science of fake news. Science, 359(6380), 1094–1096.

Malhotra, P. (2020). A relationship-centered and culturally informed approach to studying misinfor-mation on COVID-19. Social Media + Society, 6(3).

McGrew, S., Breakstone, J., Ortega, T., Smith, M., & Wineburg, S. (2018). Can students evaluate online sources? Theory & Research in Social Education, 46(2), 165–193.

Metzger, M. J., & Flanagin, A. J. (2013). Credibility and trust of information in online environments. Jour-nal of Pragmatics, 59, 210–220.

Metzger, M. J., Flanagin, A. J., & Medders, R. B. (2010). Social and heuristic approaches to credibility evalu-ation online. Journal of Communication, 60(3), 413–439.

Mohanty, A. K. (2010). Languages, inequality and marginalization. International Journal of the Sociology of Language, (205), 131–154.

Nakamura, P., et al. (2023). Language of instruction in schools in low- and middle-income countries: A systematic review. Campbell Systematic Reviews, 19(4), e1351.

Norman, G. (2010). Likert scales, levels of measurement and the ‘laws’ of statistics. Advances in Health Sciences Education, 15(5), 625–632.

Nygren, T., Folkeryd, J. W., Liberg, C., & Guath, M. (2020). Students assessing digital news and misinfor-mation. Disinformation in Open Online Media (LNCS 12259), 63–79.

Pennycook, G., & Rand, D. G. (2022). Nudging social media toward accuracy. The ANNALS of the American Academy, 700(1), 152–164.

Pennycook, G., Epstein, Z., Mosleh, M., Arechar, A. A., Eckles, D., & Rand, D. G. (2021). Shifting attention to accuracy can reduce misinformation online. Nature, 592(7855), 590–595.

Potter, W. J. (2010). The state of media literacy. Journal of Broadcasting & Electronic Media, 54(4), 675–696.

Riley, T., Meston, T., Wallis, L., & Kim, E. J. A. (2025). From sandstone to screen: A culturally responsive arts-based approach to digital literacy. Learning, Media and Technology, 1–15.

Setia, M. S. (2016). Methodology series module 3: Cross-sectional studies. Indian Journal of Dermatology, 61(3), 261–264.

Shahi, G. K., & Hale, S. A. (2025). WhatsApp tiplines and multilingual claims in the 2021 Indian assembly elections. Online Social Networks and Media, 49, 100323.

Sindakis, S., & Showkat, G. (2024). The digital revolution in India: Bridging the gap in rural technology adoption. Journal of Innovation and Entrepreneurship, 13(1).

UNESCO. (2021). Media and information literate citizens: Think critically, click wisely! UNESCO.

van Deursen, A. J., & van Dijk, J. A. (2018). The first-level digital divide shifts from inequalities in physical access to inequalities in material access. New Media & Society, 21(2), 354–375.

Vosoughi, S., Roy, D., & Aral, S. (2018). The spread of true and false news online. Science, 359(6380), 1146–1151.

Wineburg, S., & McGrew, S. (2019). Lateral reading and the nature of expertise. Teachers College Record, 121(11), 1–40.

Winters, M., et al. (2021). Debunking highly prevalent health misinformation using audio dramas deliv-ered by WhatsApp. BMJ Global Health, 6(11), e006954.

Ziipao, R. R. (2023). Out of coverage area: Tribes and digital exclusion in north-east India. Journal of De-velopment Policy and Practice, 8(2), 203–222.