Features of student media consumption and risks of spreading extremist ideas on social networks

   The article reveals the urgent problem of the spread of extremist ideas among young people through social networks. The Introduction shows the social significance of the problem of preventing the spread of extremism. Psychological characteristics of young people as a risk group are assessed.

   The novelty of the study lies in the review of studies on the characteristics of students' media consumption..

   The «Methods» section provides a diagram of empirical research. To collect empirical data, an online survey was used, in which 1,950 students took part. For mathematical processing of the study results, the following were used: factor and correlation analyses, as well as the Somers D-test. The section «Results» presents the results of studying such features of media consumption as: the popularity of various social networks among young people, the level of criticality of information perception, the degree of trust in different sources of information; methods of verifying suspicious information. The study found that the most popular among students is the social network VKontakte, and the most unpopular are Facebook and Twitter. Students don't tend to trust media information. They most often name Internet communities as resources for checking suspicious information. Most of all, students trust their experience and family. The last thing they trust is the media and teachers. In the «Discussion of results» section, the data obtained are compared with the results of other studies and the conclusion is formulated that social networks are a factor in the spread of radical ideas. In addition, the level of dissemination of extremist ideas is influenced by criticality regarding the information received and the level of trust in various sources of information. The Conclusion summarizes the findings of the study. The data obtained are of interest to a wide range of specialists: teachers, psychologists, sociologists, etc. They can be used in the development of preventive and corrective programs.

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