Navigating Truth in the Digital Era: Exploring the Challenges Confronting Journalists in Verifying Social Media Content for News Production in Malaysia

Melinda Baharom, Akmar Hayati Ahmad Ghazali, Abdul Mua'ti @ Zamri Ahmad

Abstract


In today's digital era, journalists often use social media as a source of information and for verification. This has made the verification of the authenticity of social media content for news production challenging for journalists because of the large volume of online information and the rapid spread of fake news. The issue of disinformation has emerged as one with the most far-reaching implications for journalism and society. So, the research seeks to explore how this phenomenon occurs in Malaysia, as the challenges of social media content verification for news production in Malaysia have not been researched extensively. The study's main objective is to explore the internal and external challenges journalists from mainstream newspapers experience while verifying content on social media for news production. This research was conducted through semi-structured, in-depth interviews with seven news editors and senior journalists from three prominent mainstream newspapers: Harian Metro, Berita Harian, and Sin Chew Daily. The findings show that journalists encounter challenges verifying content from social media platforms. These challenges comprise internal challenges related to personality traits, the media's organisational environment, and routine verification practices, as well as external challenges associated with societal and systemic factors. Undoubtedly, time constraints and speed when verifying information are the most significant challenges to ensuring information accuracy. In addition, Malaysian journalists affirm that there are no clear guidelines for verifying content on social media. Further, government and political influences also add to the complication of information verification among journalists.

 

Keywords: Journalists, verification, challenges, social media content, news production.

 

https://doi.org/10.17576/JKMJC-2026-4203-10


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References


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