Nigerian Users' Evaluation of Credibility of Social Media Sites

Abstract

There is a reasonable growth in the use of social media sites as means of communication among different categories of people across Nigeria. This paper examined Nigerian users’ evaluation of credibility of the sites. The paper adopted survey research method with a sample of three hundred drawn by the application of multi-stage sampling technique while questionnaire was used as instrument of data collection. The paper found out that the social media sites were rated as credible means of communication in Nigeria, whereas Facebook was assessed as the most credible among them, some contents of the sites were revealed as not credible to their Nigerian users. The study recommends that users be wary of the contents adjudged as not credible and eschew abuses of the sites. Also, media practitioners and academics were advised to be on the vanguard of educating the public on best ways of using the social media sites in the country. Keywords: communication, credibility, sites, social media, users,