The more people rely on TV programs for scientific information, the lower they score in media literacy polls, a survey released on Wednesday last week by National Taiwan University showed.
The Internet has emerged as the most common source of scientific information for Taiwanese, used by 58 percent of respondents, followed by TV (32 percent) and print media such as books (15.4 percent), magazines (9.5 percent) and newspapers (6.1 percent), the survey conducted by the university’s Science Media Center Taiwan found.
In terms of which type of media they trusted, 32.1 percent of respondents said that no medium is trustworthy, while 36.2 percent said they trusted TV news, 20.3 percent trusted information that they found online and 5.9 percent trusted newspapers.
Asked how often they seek to verify information in a news story, 32.8 percent of respondents said that they “often” consult other sources, 27.3 percent said that they “sometimes” do and 22.6 percent said that they never do.
The survey included 15 questions to assess the respondents’ understanding of the limits of scientific research, scientific arguments and news headlines, as well as how well they could distinguish between factual and fabricated stories.
For instance, the survey asked respondents whether the following statements were true or false: “Taiwan’s farmers use hormones to stimulate growth in chickens,” “5G networks can spread the virus that causes COVID-19” and “offshore wind turbines can topple during a typhoon.” The correct answer to all three questions is “false.”
The survey found that people who rely more on TV programs scored lower in the test, while those who often verify information and have a higher level formal education scored higher.
The survey was conducted by mobile and landline telephone interviews among Taiwanese aged 18 and older from May 25 to 30, and included 1,068 valid questionnaires.
It had a margin of error of 2.98 percentage points.
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