Mobile Myanmar: The Impact of Social Media on Young People Living in Conflict-Affected Regions of Myanmar
When asked if they trust in news seen on social media, the most common response was ‘sometimes’ (42.2%), followed
by often/usually (33.2%). The distribution of responses by sub-sample is shown in Figure 6. When responses were
converted to an ordinal 1-5 point scale, Kruskal-Wallis tests revealed that on average, IDP respondents had a
significantly higher level of trust in news seen on social media compared to urban and rural respondents (p < .001),
and males a significantly higher level of trust compared to females (p < .05).
Figure 6: How often trust news from social media
70%
60%
50%
Kayah Urban
40%
Kayah Rural
30%
Rakhine Urban
20%
Muslim IDP
10%
0%
Almost never
Seldomly
Sometimes
Often
Always
Most of the overall sample indicated that they check the accuracy of news read on social media (65.1% overall), with
rates of checking highest among the IDP (89.5%) and male (77.4%) sub-samples.
Of those who did check the accuracy of news read on social media, the most common methods overall were to ask
friends or family (60.4%), check other Facebook pages (59.7%), and check other news sources (50.0%). These three
were the top-ranked methods across all demographics and sub-samples (see Figure 7). However, males and the Rakhine
State sub-samples were much more likely to select more than one method, and so as per previous ‘select all that apply’
questions, had higher rates for each option compared to females and the Kayah State sub-samples respectively.
Differences worth noting were that IDP respondents were most likely speak to community leaders or check the
Facebook page of local reporters, while rural respondents were least likely to check other news sources.
Figure 7: Checking accuracy of news on social media
80%
70%
60%
Kayah Urban
50%
Kayah Rural
40%
Rakhine Urban
30%
Muslim IDP
20%
10%
0%
Check
Use Google Ask friends
Check
Speak to Check with
other news
or family
another community
local
sources
F'book page
leader
reporter
F'book page
91
Other