The Effect of Media Literacy on Journalism Students' Trust Level in Social Media News

In the current digital era, the topics of media literacy and the trust placed in social media news are among the most pertinent research subjects due to their significant impacts on individuals. This study aims to examine the relationship between media literacy levels and trust in social media news among Generation Z, considered digital natives. Conducted with Journalism Department students at Uşak University Faculty of Communication, this study obtained 311 usable responses. It was found that students used social media for more than seven hours daily, with WhatsApp being the most frequently used platform. Both the stu-dents' media literacy levels and their trust in social media news were found to be high. No statistically significant difference was found between the students' descriptive characteris-tics such as age, gender and average social media usage and their media literacy and trust level in social media news (p>0.05). However, a positive, significant, and moderate rela-tionship (r: 0.382) was found between media literacy and trust in social media news (p<0.05). Regression analysis results showed that media literacy had a 14.6% effect on students' trust level in social media news (p<0.01). This result could be interpreted as the younger generation placing more trust in social media news due to reasons such as the traditional media's low levels of press freedom in Turkey and biased press reporting.