{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2026,1,4]],"date-time":"2026-01-04T21:30:15Z","timestamp":1767562215787,"version":"3.41.2"},"reference-count":33,"publisher":"Emerald","issue":"3","license":[{"start":{"date-parts":[[2021,12,10]],"date-time":"2021-12-10T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1639094400000},"content-version":"tdm","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"https:\/\/www.emerald.com\/insight\/site-policies"}],"content-domain":{"domain":[],"crossmark-restriction":false},"short-container-title":["DLP"],"published-print":{"date-parts":[[2022,6,29]]},"abstract":"<jats:sec>\n<jats:title content-type=\"abstract-subheading\">Purpose<\/jats:title>\n<jats:p>Social media is a popular source for information sharing in the contemporary world. Social media allow individuals to create, publish and diffuse contents directly. This openness has increased the risk of running into misinformation and raised questions about credibility of information shared. This study aims to examine the credibility of social media through the perceptions of university students. It also intends to see the difference in opinions based on their gender, academic disciplines and programs of study.<\/jats:p>\n<\/jats:sec>\n<jats:sec>\n<jats:title content-type=\"abstract-subheading\">Design\/methodology\/approach<\/jats:title>\n<jats:p>The study was based on a cross-sectional survey; a structured questionnaire was developed by consulting the relevant literature. Students were selected on convenient basis from all the programs of four universities of Faisalabad, Pakistan. Four hundred students were selected randomly from each university.<\/jats:p>\n<\/jats:sec>\n<jats:sec>\n<jats:title content-type=\"abstract-subheading\">Findings<\/jats:title>\n<jats:p>The findings indicated that students considered social media partially credible. Currency, community wellness, understandability and completeness of information were the highly rated facets, while factual and unbiased information was the low rated aspects. The perceived credibility of social media among the university students was the same across genders, programs of study and academic disciplines.<\/jats:p>\n<\/jats:sec>\n<jats:sec>\n<jats:title content-type=\"abstract-subheading\">Research limitations\/implications<\/jats:title>\n<jats:p>The study may be helpful for social media service providers to address the concerns that students had in their perception regarding its credibility.<\/jats:p>\n<\/jats:sec>\n<jats:sec>\n<jats:title content-type=\"abstract-subheading\">Originality\/value<\/jats:title>\n<jats:p>This study may likely benefit faculty members, researchers, librarians\/information professionals and digital libraries to understand the students\u2019 concerns about social media credibility from a developing country\u2019s perspective. Such understanding will enable them to better address, educate and train university students at how to evaluate the quality of information on social media by offering information literacy programs. It is direly needed that university libraries should train the students to be proficient in assessing the quality of information by offering information or digital literacy programs. Moreover, the study may be helpful for social media service providers to address the concerns that students had in their perception regarding its credibility.<\/jats:p>\n<\/jats:sec>","DOI":"10.1108\/dlp-06-2021-0048","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2021,12,10]],"date-time":"2021-12-10T00:45:06Z","timestamp":1639097106000},"page":"251-262","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":5,"title":["Measuring personal and academic differences in students\u2019 perceived social media credibility"],"prefix":"10.1108","volume":"38","author":[{"given":"Iqra","family":"Bashir","sequence":"first","affiliation":[],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"given":"Amara","family":"Malik","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"given":"Khalid","family":"Mahmood","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]}],"member":"140","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2021,12,10]]},"reference":[{"key":"key2022062809234237100_ref001","first-page":"441","article-title":"Measuring user credibility in social media","volume-title":"International Conference on Social Computing, Behavioral-Cultural Modeling and Prediction","year":"2013"},{"issue":"1","key":"key2022062809234237100_ref002","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"89","DOI":"10.1002\/asi.21447","article-title":"On the measurability of information quality","volume":"62","year":"2011","journal-title":"Journal of the American Society for Information Science and Technology"},{"key":"key2022062809234237100_ref003","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1177\/0340035221991564","article-title":"Social media use and information-sharing behaviour of university students","year":"2021","journal-title":"IFLA Journal"},{"issue":"10","key":"key2022062809234237100_ref004","first-page":"33","article-title":"Perceived credibility of social networking technologies in Uganda\u2019s institutions of higher learning","volume":"17","year":"2017","journal-title":"Global Journal of Human- Social Science: Linguistic and Education"},{"key":"key2022062809234237100_ref005","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"675","DOI":"10.1145\/1963405.1963500","article-title":"Information credibility on twitter","volume-title":"Proceedings of the 20th international conference on World Wide Web","year":"2011"},{"issue":"3","key":"key2022062809234237100_ref006","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"249","DOI":"10.1080\/15332861.2019.1595362","article-title":"The effect of social media on perceived information credibility and decision making","volume":"18","year":"2019","journal-title":"Journal of Internet Commerce"},{"key":"key2022062809234237100_ref007","first-page":"139","article-title":"Nigerian users\u2019 evaluation of credibility of social media sites","volume":"40","year":"2015","journal-title":"Journal of New Media and Mass Communication"},{"issue":"6","key":"key2022062809234237100_ref008","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"683","DOI":"10.1016\/S0747-5632(03)00021-9","article-title":"The perceived credibility of personal web page information as influenced by the sex of the source","volume":"19","year":"2003","journal-title":"Computers in Human Behavior"},{"issue":"3\/4","key":"key2022062809234237100_ref009","first-page":"137","article-title":"The credibility of volunteered geographic information","volume":"72","year":"2008","journal-title":"GeoJournal"},{"key":"key2022062809234237100_ref010","unstructured":"Global Digital Report (2021), \u201c(Archived by the internet\u201d, available at: https:\/\/wearesocial.com\/global-digital-report-2021 (accessed 9 August 2021)."},{"key":"key2022062809234237100_ref011","unstructured":"Haq, S. (2013), \u201cSmartphone penetration: Telecom firms strategically shift focus to data services\u201d, The Express Tribune, 31 August, available at: https:\/\/tribune.com.pk\/story\/598071\/smartphone-penetration-telecom-firms-strategically-shift-focus-to-data-services (accessed 9 August 2021)."},{"key":"key2022062809234237100_ref012","unstructured":"Higher Education Commission, Pakistan (2020), available at: www.hec.gov.pk\/ (accessed 9 August 2021)."},{"issue":"4","key":"key2022062809234237100_ref013","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"957","DOI":"10.1111\/jcc4.12084","article-title":"Credibility of social network sites for political information among politically interested internet users","volume":"19","year":"2014","journal-title":"Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication"},{"issue":"3","key":"key2022062809234237100_ref014","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"363","DOI":"10.1002\/asi.20722","article-title":"Trust in digital information","volume":"59","year":"2008","journal-title":"Journal of the American Society for Information Science and Technology"},{"issue":"4","key":"key2022062809234237100_ref015","first-page":"n4","article-title":"Credibility and usefulness of health information on Facebook: a survey study with US college students","volume":"21","year":"2016","journal-title":"Information Research: An International Electronic Journal"},{"key":"key2022062809234237100_ref016","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"314","DOI":"10.1016\/j.procs.2015.12.146","article-title":"Factors influencing information credibility on social media platforms: evidence from Facebook pages","volume":"72","year":"2015","journal-title":"Procedia Computer Science"},{"key":"key2022062809234237100_ref017","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1177\/02666669211049383","article-title":"Understanding the Facebook users' behavior towards COVID-19 information sharing by integrating the theory of planned behavior and gratifications","year":"2021","journal-title":"Information Development"},{"issue":"1","key":"key2022062809234237100_ref018","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"293","DOI":"10.1207\/s15567419cy2701_10","article-title":"Credibility for the 21st century: integrating perspectives on source, message and media credibility in the contemporary media environment","volume":"27","year":"2003","journal-title":"Communication Yearbook"},{"key":"key2022062809234237100_ref019","unstructured":"Mwangi, E.W. 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