Abstract:
This study examines fake news and its implication for national security in Nigeria. The study made use of a survey research design in which 125 respondents were selected using cluster sampling. The respondents were selected from Ibadan North Abstract Local Government Area of Oyo State. Three research questions and one hypothesis were used in this study. The instrument for data collection was a questionnaire designed by the researcher and data analysis was done using SPSS version 21. The result of the finding showed that self promotion (X = 2.49, SD = 1.08), gaining more followers on social media (X = 2.06, SD = 1.15) and intention to create panic among the public (X = 1.87, SD = 0.82) are some of the factors that triggers fake news. Furthermore, results of the study showed that Fake news create panic in the society , it can lead to ethnic and religious in the society and can result into jungle justice in the society. The result of the hypothesis of the study revealed a positive correlation between fake news and national security ( r = .381, p<.05) which indicated that increase in fake news gives rise to high level of insecurity in the society.
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