APPRAISING SOCIAL MEDIA AS AN ALTERNATIVE SOURCE OF NEWS

This study on Appraising social media as an alternative source of news seeks to find out the opinions of Nigerian youths on social media as an alternative source of news. The research made use of the Gatekeeping theory and also uses and diffusion and innovation theory. This research adopted the survey research method using 400 questionnaires to get responses from the youths across Nigeria. For the response rate 400 Questionnaires were returned. The questionnaire was filled online using a google for due to Covid-19 pandemic. The study revealed that social media is should indeed be use as an alternative source of news. From the research, it is obvious that majority of youths use social media as a source of news. It is obvious that the traditional ways of broadcasting news are hardly used by youths. Social media is taking the frontline and it is advisable for all media houses to indulge more in the use of social media to broadcast news.