Impact of Media and Information Literacy in Nigerian Colleges of Education Curriculum: A Case of Detecting Fake News

Purpose: This study sought to determine if students at colleges of education in northern Nigeria had developed the psychomotor skills required to recognize fake news (i.e., picture news, video news, and written social media/blog/website news). Methodology: This paper adopted a quasi-experimental (one group post-test only) design. A sample size of 384 was drawn from a population of 28,050 students across six randomly selected colleges of education situated in northern Nigeria for the academic year 2020-2022. The participants were selected through a mixed-methods sample (cluster and purposive). A cluster sample was used to group students into different geopolitical zones and schools (faculty), and then, the researchers selected members (64 participants) from each college using a purposive sample. Data were collected with the aid of a questionnaire, presented on tables, and analyzed using the descriptive statistic. Findings: The study found that Nigeria Certificate in Education (NCE) students in northern colleges lack psychomotor capability to verify fake news either through a manual or automatic method. The findings showed that only 23.7% of participants verified a picture without a background, 21.9% of participants were able to verify picture with background, 16.7% of participants verified video news, and 27.9% of participants verified written blog/website/ social media news. Unique contribution to policy: The study observed a lack of psychomotor capability in verifying fake news among NCE students in the selected colleges of education. Therefore, the authors urged curriculum planners, educators, and other stakeholders to design more practical skills, especially in the area of detecting fake news on traditional and social media, in light of the study's findings.