The question of what constitutes truth today is in debate. In particular, young people seem to have difficulties in verifying the information they encounter online. The digitization means an increasing prevalence of fake news on digital media platforms. This becomes a problem because research has shown that young people mainly consume news that they find online. Fake news raises questions concerning the extent to what young adults trust news online. With this in mind, this master’s thesis focuses on: ’What role do fake news production and dissemination have on trust in news on digital media platforms among Flemish young adults?’

In the literature review, the context is given in which fake news could occur. Understanding this media phenomenon has become more important because denoting everything as fake news can cause potential implications such as damage to the reputation of people, obscuring public debate, or influencing political decisions.

For this master’s thesis, an online quantitative survey was conducted. The attitude of 279 respondents aged between 18-34 in Flanders was measured by a multiple regression analysis. The results show that age and social media contacts play a significant role in the trust of young adults in online news.

Furthermore, the study finds significant correlations between social media features and trust in online news as well as between trust and the extent they interact with online news.