Fm Teens – News, Social Media and Fake News

Fm Teens is the only radio station in Papua New Guinea dedicated to giving young people the chance to get involved with radio. Broadcasting 24/7/365 days of the year.

This study’s purpose was to gain a better understanding of teens’ perspectives on news, social media and fake news from a bottom-up approach using focus group discussions and digital ethnography techniques. Participants were then invited to share examples of how they handled any news or fake information that they encountered while navigating social media use.

Teens often responded to this type of content by scrolling quickly past it in order to avoid seeing it, while other responses showed distrust in media in general – teens frequently associated fake news with politicians, media figures and authorities, while they became less inclined to read traditional sources than before (Kalleid and Veberg 2021; Swart 2021).

Few teens reported actively engaging with false or untrustworthy information found on social media. Their responses typically included validating this data against both online and offline sources for accuracy; some teens responded by simply ignoring such content, perhaps reflecting lack of trust in their ability to verify its truthfulness.