Sharing news over social media has become an everyday practice among social media users worldwide. Literature has shown that many factors affect news-sharing behavior in many Western countries. Little is known about this phenomenon among youth in the Arab region.
This research investigates the factors that predict the news-sharing tendency among youth in the United Arab Emirates. This study examines three variables concerning news-sharing behavior based on the news-sharing literature: news credibility, fact-checking, and commentary on social media news posts.
Using a convenience sample of 324 Arabs (Emiratis and Expats), males and females with a mean age of 25.6, the results showed no significant differences between Emiratis and other Arab nationalities in news sharing, commentary news sharing, and news credibility-checking. There is a substantial difference between Emiratis and Arab ex-pats in news-sharing patterns, fact-checking abilities, news source credibility checking, and news-sharing patterns. There is a significant positive correlation between fact-checking abilities and news-sharing patterns, while the correlation is negative and non-significant regarding news credibility. Commentary news sharing correlates positively with fact-checking and negatively with news credibility.

Authors:
Azza Ahmed, Zayed University, United Arab Emirates

About the Presenter(s)
Dr. Azza Ahmed is a professor of Mass Communication at Zayed University at the United Arab Emirates and Cairo University in Egypt. Her research interests include media effects, television studies, binge-watching, news sharing, and new media usage.

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