Perceptions on the effects of Fake News in Mental

Health of Grade 12 Humanities and Social Sciences of

Saint Joseph Institute of Technology

A Research Presented to the Senior High School Main

of Saint Joseph Institute Of Technology
Butuan City

In Partial Fulfilment of the Requirements for the Subject of

Research Project

Lovely Mae Allawan

KheaBurata

Darah Mae Casawitan

AlleonaLicoan

Kim FanlanceQuiban

Beauty Alison D. Villanueva

 CHAPTER 1

PROBLEM AND ITS SETTING

Introduction

Philippines is a country labelled as the “Social Media Capital of the

World” due to the high usage time of multiple users which takes about four

hours or more per day. Almost every millennial in this generation are

equipped with mobile devices and social accounts. Social media and the use

of mobile devices occupy a prevalent place in most households (Brenner,

Rainie & Purcell, 2012). According to (Pierri and Ceri 2019), most of

nowadays news consumptions has shifted towards online social media, where

it is more comfortable to ingest, share and further discuss news with friends or

other readers.

Social media platform made it easier for the news to be consumed by

the readers through sharing, commenting and posting the news. However,

since it is much easier and faster for the information to disseminate through

social media platforms, it is also possible that social media also enable the

widespread of fake news on different sites. Fake news, a specific type of

disinformation, is a false information that aims to deceive the consumers and

mislead their knowledge about things. Given the prevalence of this new

phenomenon “Fake News” was even named the word of the year by

Macquarie dictionary in 2016 (Shu et al. 2017)

As stated by (Egelhofer and Lecheler, 2019) a message is a fake news

when it is low in facticity, was created with the intention to deceive, and is

presented in a journalist format. A narrow definition of fake news is news

articles which considered intentional and verifiably false and can mislead the

consumers. Fake news focus on either the authenticity or intent of the news

content. The widest definition appropriate for fake news is “Any incorrect

information that has been created intentionally under the guise of fact”

(Barclay, 2018). Fake news already exist since the printing press was

invented in1439.

The researchers conduct this study to show the unconscious effects of

disinformation throughout social media. As mentioned above, the researchers

highly imply to conduct this problem for the sake of Grade 12 HUMSS

students in Saint Joseph Institute of Technology and for incoming students to

easily distinguish fake news from facts.

The aim of this quantitative study, is to use the voice of senor high

school students of the selected Grade 12 HUMMS students, to see the

numbers of the victims of fake news effects on our health related healthcare

or mental health.
Review of Related Literature and Studies

As has been stated in the research study conducted by Meyer (2018)

"Falsehood flies, and the truth comes limping after it" - Jonathan Swift, which

literally means false news is much more likely to spread faster while the truth

remains delayed. In their observation every major contested news story in

English across the span of Twitter's existence-some 126,000 stories, tweeted

by 3 million users over more than 10 years-and finds that the truth simply

cannot compete with hoax and rumor. By every common metric, falsehood

consistently dominates the truth on twitter more than the accurate ones do.

Their study finds fake news and false rumors reach more people, penetrate

deeper into the social network and spread much faster than the accurate

stories. They have also stated in their study that false information outperforms

true information.

Another study conducted by Tondoc Jr. (2019) in his scholarly research

on the phenomenon of fake news. He defined fake news as a form of

falsehood intended to primarily deceive people by mimicking the look and feel

of real news. Initial research has shown that only a small fraction of the online

audience is exposed to fake news, for this small group of individuals, the

impact of fake news can be quite substantial. Second, studies have identified

cognitive processes that make individuals more prone to the influence of fake

news, such as confirmation balance, selective exposure, and lack of analytical

thinking. It is claimed that fake news derives its power from its appeal to

partisanship, perceived novelty, and repeated exposure facilitated by both

bots and human users that share them in the online sphere. While fact
checking has also risen in response to fake news, eventually, studies have

found that corrections to wrong information only work on some individuals.

Recent study conducted by (Ong and Cabañes 2018) Understand the

impact of how various disinformation campaigns collectively create a public

sphere filled with information pollution and,consequently with toxic incivility

and polarization. Networked disinformation here refers to the organized

production of political deception that distributes responsibilities to diverse and

loosely interconnected groups of hierarchized digital workers. The study

sketches out the architecture of networked disinformation in the Philippines'

digital underground, based on twenty (20) in-depth interviews with people they

call "architects of networked disinformation". Ong and Cabañes mentioned

community-level fake account operators, who infiltrate existing online

communities and engage with real grassroot supporters. These online

communities include politician's fan groups, Philippines-related news pages,

or pages aims to discuss local politics of certain towns or municipalities. While

operators are usually fresh college graduates and politicians' administrative

staff. Overall, this literature only studies the hierarchy of disinformation

architects, and the architecture of networked disinformation in the Philippines.

Research study conducted by (Alcott et al.), the result shows that

interactions with the fake news sites in the database rose steadily on both

Facebook and Twitter from early 2015, to the months just after the 2016

election, even after the post-election decline, Facebook engagements with

fake news sites still average roughly 60million per month. The results also

reveal that absolute level of interaction with misinformation remains high and
that Facebook continues to play a particularly important role in its diffusion.

concluded that the diffusion of misinformation through social media is a

potential threat to democracy and broader society. The study shows that user

interactions with false content rose steadily on both Facebook and Twitter

through the end of 2016. Since then, interactions have fallen sharply on

Facebook while continuing to rise on Twitter. The result of the study

suggested that the relative magnitude of the misinformation problem on

Facebook has declined since its peak.

According to Shu et al. (2019) Social Media is a double-edged sword

for news consumption. On the one hand, its low cost, convenient access, and

rapid information sharing lead people to search for and consume social media

content. It allows fake news to spread widely, i.e. low-quality news with

intentionally false information. As stated by Zhang and Ghorbani (2019) The

growth of online social media in recent years has greatly facilitated the way

people communicate with each other. Online social media users access

information, associate with one another and keep informed about trending

events. Much recent information on social media is questionable and, in some

cases, supposed to be harmful. Often, such content is called fake news. Mass

amounts of fake news online now have potential to cause significant social

problems. The ability to identify when online information is untrue and

designed to deceive is of critical importance. For many reasons, this is

technically difficult. Content is easily produced and shared rapidly using social

media platforms, leading to a large amount of content for review.

Theoretical Framework

Recent data refutes the widely held belief that partisanship and

politically driven thinking are to blame for individuals believing "fake news."

Lack of thorough thinking and relevant knowledge, as well as the use of

familiarity and source heuristics, are all connected to poor truth discernment.

There's also a big gap between what individuals think and what they'll post on

social media, and it's mostly due to inattention rather than deliberate

disinformation dissemination. Effective interventions may encourage people to

think about truth on social media, and they can utilize crowdsourced veracity

ratings to enhance social media ranking algorithms.

False information is nothing new. The Sun newspaper in New York, for

example, published six pieces on alleged life on the moon in 1835, which

became known as the 'Great Moon Hoax.' However, during the 2016 US

Presidential Election and the UK Brexit Referendum, a new type of fake news

emerged: false or extremely misleading political 'news' items, mostly spread

via social media. In the wake of extensive misinformation and disinformation

on social media regarding the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19)

pandemic and the 2020 US Presidential Election, concern about false news

was heightened in 2020. Yellow journalism and misleading hyperpartisan

news are two types of bad news material that are potential contributors of

political conflict.What is it in human psychology – and how it interacts with

social media – that makes it so difficult to tell the difference between true and

false information on the internet? This subject is not just theoretically

interesting, but it also has practical implications: designing successful counter-

misinformation initiatives requires a knowledge of the underlying psychology.

 People share news on social media because they believe it is true, as

one might anticipate. As a result, widespread sharing of false content is

frequently interpreted as evidence of widespread false beliefs. However,

recent research has shown that social media sharing judgments can be quite

different from judgments about accuracy. For example, participants who were

asked about the accuracy of a set of headlines rated true headlines as much

more accurate than false headlines; however, veracity had little impact on

whether they would share the headlines.As a result, sharing intentions for

false headlines were much higher than assessments of their truth (e.g., 91%

higher in indicating that many people were apparently willing to share content

that they could have identified as being inaccurate.

Theoretical/Conceptual Framework

Perceptions on The Effects of Fake News in Mental Health of Grade 12 HUMSS

students of Saint Joseph Institute of Technology
 Mental Health of Grade 12
Humanities and Social
Sciences Studentsof Saint
Joseph Institute of Technology

Dependent Variable Independent

Variable
Strategies taken by the
students to distinguish fake
news from real news

Fake news affecting the

learning of Grade 12
HUMSS students of SJIT

Significant relationship in the

number of Grade 12 HUMSS
students and victims of fake news.

The definition of this analysis focuses on the two distinct dependent and

independent variables. The Grade 12 students in Humanities and Social

Sciences are the independent variable. The perception of fake news as

regards the dependent variable. The researchers plan to collect a lot of data

on the exploits, numbers of victims, cause, effects, possible solutions given

the problems within this study. In the right sight paradigm, the design strategy-

relation and correlation of variables to the subject-perceptions on the effects

of fake news. Number of victims in fake news. Significant relationship

between the number of Grade 12 students and victims of fake news in the

SJIT School Year 2021-2022.

Statement of the Problem

The study focuses to know and collect data of information from Grade

12Humanities and Social Sciences students based on their perception

towards the effects of fake news on social media. The following problems

stated below seek to raise sufficient and rational answers that may help

enlighten the readers perspective towards the perceived effects of fake news

on social media.

1. What is the profile of the respondents in terms of

a. Academic strand

b. Year and Section

2. How many Grade 12 HUMSS students in Saint Joseph Institute of

Technology are victims a fake news on social media?

3. is there a significant relationship in the number of Grade 12 HUMSS

students and victims of fake news in Saint Joseph Institute of Technology?

4. How does the Grade 12 HUMSS students describe their perceptions

towards the effects of fake news on social media?

5.What are the strategies taken by the students to distinguish fake from real

news?

Hypothesis:

1. There is no significant relationship between the number of Grade 12

Humss students and victims of fake news in SJIT

 2. The total number of population in Grade 12 Humss students in SJIT

does not have any significant relationship with the numbers of victim in

social media about fake news

Significance of the Study

Significance of the study the study focused on the perceptions on the effects

of fake news in Grade 12 humanities and Social Sciences student ofSaint

Joseph Institute of technology of 2021-2022. The result of the study will be

beneficial to the following:

Students. For the students to be knowledgeable and aware in order to

recognize and easily distinguish fake from real news that are circulating on

social media.

Respondents. The respondent will have an awareness on the importance of

the effects of fake news and its role on the improvement of 12 HUMSS

students.

Teachers/mentors. The results of the study will help the teachers/ mentors

provide encouragement to think or ideas that will increase their competency.

Parents. The result of the study will help the parents of the respondent feel

secured because there is program in the Institute like the mentoring program

that will help their student and adjust with the adversities of college life

Future researchers. The findings of the will serve as a reference material and

a guide for future researchers who wish to conduct the same experimental

study of any related to effects of fake news.

Definition of Terms

HUMSS - The Humanities and Social Sciences are the study of human

behaviour and interaction in social, cultural, environmental, economic and

political contexts. The Humanities and Social Sciences have a historical and

contemporary focus, from personal to global contexts, and consider

challenges for the future.

Respondents- the people who answered the survey questionnaire.

Misinformation- false or misleading information that is spread deliberately to

deceive.

Prevalence- Th fact or condition of being prevalent; commonsense.

CHAPTER 2

RESEARCH METHODOLOGY

Research Design
In order to fully extract proper information and data, the researchers used the

quantitative method in the study. Information needed are perspectives, effects

methods and actions experienced or taken of the students alone. Using

random sampling excluding statistics and other statistical tools, which require

vast amount of data extraction and population.

Research Locale

The location where the study will be conducted is in the institution of SJIT

main campus. The mentioned academic strand and grade level are the

specific fields in which the researcherswill engage the survey that will be

conducted.

Research Respondents/Sampling

The respondents of this study will be chosen from the Grade 12 HUMSS

students of SJIT through random sampling.

Research Instrument

The researchers used research-made questionnaire as primary tool in

gathering data and collect information.

Data Gathering Procedure

In gathering the data for this study, the researchers followed the following

steps:
 1. The researchers chose the topic which was relevant issues this days in

SJIT Senior High School, especially to Grade 12 Humss students.

2. The researchers distributed the questionnaire to the Grade 12 HUMSS

students and waited until they finish answering

Statistical Treatment

The data to be gathered in this study will be subjected to the following

statistical treatment:

Mean Formula

Σfx
x̄=
N
Where,
 x = the mean value of the set of given data.
 f = frequency of the individual data
 N = sum of frequencies 

Median Formula = The middle value in the data set is called median

( fm−f 1)
Mode formula = L + h 
( fm−f 1 ) +¿ ¿

Where,

 'L' is the lower limit of the modal class.

 'h' is the size of the class interval.
 'fmfm' is the frequency of the modal class.
 'f1f1' is the frequency of the class preceding the modal class.
 'f2f2' is the frequency of the class succeeding the modal class.
 CHAPTER 3

Results and Discussion

This section presents the analysis and interpretation of the study on the

following quantitative methodology. This content of this chapter are the

responses of the respondents gathered through survey method. Through

interviews, respondents were able to unconsciously cover the set of

questions.

Most of the students had experienced being a victim of fake news.

Fake news often has the aim of damaging the reputation of a person or entity,

or making money through advertising revenue.This kind of spreading

information affects many students every now and then. However, some of

them didn’t experience being a victim of fake news. Table 1 shows the Victims

of fake news.

Table 1. The Victims of fake news.

Respondents Victim Not a Victim

33 29 4

Mean x 16.5 Median x 16.5 Mode 4, 29

As we see with the current corona virus situation, as worry grows,

people are sharing more information that is false or misinformed. It is very

easy to share something that is seen on Facebook or other platforms that can

spread or share information. Considering being wisely when it comes of

 reading a news, must confirm the news if it’s real or not. We all want social

media to be constructive, for the students to be able to make informed

decisions using the correct platforms. Table 2 shows students differentiating

fake news from real news.

Students differentiating fake news from real Frequency

news

Checking the Source 25

Examining Evidence 4

Checking the comments of other people 4

Mean x 11 Median x 4 Mode 4

Half of the students experienced sharing a misleading information.

When there is time that they fall to fake news and share it without knowing,

and because lack of credibility evaluationwe engage the news in order to

inform ourselves, generally because we weren’t there to witness events unfold

first-hand. As a result, we trust our source of news that the information they

provide us is, in fact, true; and in doing so, we put trust in the

source’scredibility. But we cannot blindly do so. We must first evaluate it.

Table 3 shows students who tried to share and didn’t try share fake news

Respondents Yes No

33 17 16
Mean x 16.5 Median x 16.5 Mode 16, 17

Most of the students considering fact checking information before

sharing is the best way of preventing spreading of fake news. A lot of possible

ways of preventing of spreading fake news but the most recommended is to

check the information first. It is more and more important to check information

sources, especially on the internet and using social media. Anyone online is

able to publish and share information, even though it may be false. Even

photographs and videos can be doctored, mislabelled or manipulated to tell a

fake story. Table 4 shows Students who answered the possible ways to stop

fake news from spreading.

The possible ways to stop fake news Frequency

from spreading

Never share a post on social media 27

without fact-checking

Check first the sources 4

Don't engage in it 2

Mean x 11 Median x 4 Mode 2, 4, 27

Students are aware of the effects of the fake news to the society. The

spread of fake news in several social media sites have been rampant. Its

effect on each person differs from a simple shrug to a gossiping spree in the

wholeneighbourhood. and to some extent the whole nation. In an era where

information is abundant and easily accessible, it has become a perfect nest of

fake news. Spotting such falsehood can be easy but some become

convincingly true. Table 5 Shows the students who answered in possible

outcomes/effects of fake news.

What are the possible Frequency

outcomes/effects of fake news?

Arises conflict 6

There would be difficulties on 4

differentiating real from fake

It would change people’s beliefs, 23

attitudes, or perceptions

Mean x 11 Median x 6 Mode 6, 4, 23

Table 1. The victims of fake news

Stated in this table is the number of respondents. There are 33

respondents, 29 of them were a victim of fake news, and 4 were not.

Therefore, any student has been a victim and a target of fake news and

many also experienced having a damaged reputation just by believing in such

things.

Table 2. Students differentiate fake news from real news.

Out of 33 respondents, 25 students will start checking the source first

before doing anything or before believing. These 25 students are likely to do

some research first before spreading the news.Doing this might help a student
to learn more about the news. 4 students answered by examining evidence, if

the news is about scholarshipsthese 4 students would love to examine the

given requirements and the thingsthey can earn for being a scholar. The last 4

students chose by checking the comments of other people in the said news if

the news is about an actress who got involved in a third party these 4

students would likelyto scroll down in the comment section to know more.

Table 3. Students who tried to share and didn’t try to share the fake

news.

Half of the students experienced sharing fake news, and half haven’t.

Students who haven’t triedsharing such things might know what will happen if

they share these things, and half who tried maybe got excited to share them

with other people.

Table 4. Students who answered the possible ways to stop fake news

from spreading.

27 out of 33 respondents believe that a way to stop fake news from

spreading is to never share a post on social media without fact-checking. 4

respondents believe that a way to stop a piece of fake news from spreading is

to check the sources first, and 2 respondents believe not to engage in it.

Hence,thereare different ways to stop fake news but every student has their

own belief and action on how to stop it from spreading. Fact-checking is

important so people can have knowledge about the said news, and

knowledge to share with others about the news. Expanding the knowledge

and share it with others so the victimsof it won’t increase.

Table 5. Students who answered in possible outcomes/effects of fake

news.

6 respondents said that the possible effects of spreading fake news are

it might arise a conflict, 4 respondents said that possible effects are difficulties

in differentiating real from fake, and 23 respondents said that it would change

people’s beliefs, attitudes, or perceptions.

Consequently, out of 33 respondents, every studenthas their own beliefs that

can also help everyone to stop spreading fake news and beliefs that can help

to enlighten the possible effects of fake news.

 CHAPTER 4

Conclusion and Recommendations

We’re in a country labelled as the “social media capital of the world due

to the high usage time of multiple users which takes about four hours or more

per day. According to some other students, their strategies taken to

distinguish fake from real news are examining the evidences, see who else

reporting the news or story if it came from a verified news account and also by

checking the sources. Even though there are some students who haven’t tried

to share and to be a victim of fake news, it doesn’t mean that they are

excluded to become the next target of it. The number of Grade 12 Humss

students has significant relationship in the number of victims of fake news.

Furthermore, their perception towards the effects of fake news social media

can cause panic, fear, depression or anxiety. Through questionnaires, the

researchers concluded that all Grade 12 HUMSS students in SJIT are victims

of fake news.

The questionnaire obtained information about perceptions on the

effects of fake news in the mental health of grade 12 HUMSS students. The

questionnaire provide evidence about how the respondents perceive the

sources of risk and to understand what is fake from real news.

Overall, the questionnaire and survey findings suggest that there is

considerate support for all students about their perceptions on the effects of

fake news in mental health. The suggestion of the researcher that future
researcher should also conduct specific reason why fake news affects in the

mental health. Grade 12 students should be more careful in sharing news on

social media and taken some strategies to distinguish fake from real news.

Lastly, mental health is the top priority of all.