Search Habits, Strategies, and Criteria to Filter the Online News and News Outlets of the College Students: Basis for Media and Information Literacy Program

With the unprecedented spread of counterfeit content on the Internet, students need to develop strategies and criteria to filter and select appropriately from the vast array of information available to them. Hence, five hundred forty-three (543) college students were selected and studied using a quantitative-correlation research design with the aid of survey forms to explore their search habits, strategies, and criteria when seeking out online news and engaging with news outlets. Specifically, the researcher sought to determine the online news habits and the frequently searched news of the students; the strategies and criteria they use to filter and evaluate the online news and news outlets' credibility; and test the significant difference between the responses in each college along news search habits and frequently searched online news, strategies to filter online news, criteria to evaluate news credibility, and criteria to evaluate new outlets credibility. Results revealed that students' search habits and frequently searched online news depend on the topics that interest them. They preferred reading online news articles from search engines like Google, Facebook, and others. The major strategy to filter online news is to look for trending and viral topics. Trustworthiness and familiarity with news outlets are the main criteria the students use to evaluate the news and news outlet credibility. Lastly, using the F-Test Two-way ANOVA, showed that responses from each college and the online news search activities and strategies in filtering news and news outlets varied significantly. The findings contributed to an understanding of the ways and choices of the students when accessing and consuming online thus, serves as a foundation for designing a literacy initiative that promotes the students to be discerning, critical, and informed consumers in this dynamic digital information landscape