A recent survey showed that 2 out of every 5 Koreans fail to distinguish fake news from real news.

Rep. Kim Sung-soo from the ruling Democratic Party of Korea on Wednesday cited a survey by the Green Consumer Network that showed many users get their information from mobile platforms, but lack media literacy.

According to the survey, 78.6 percent of respondents get their information from YouTube. Other primary news sources included Naver, Facebook and KakaoTalk, at 57.5 percent, 35.7 percent and 33 percent of the responses, respectively.

The most-viewed categories for the news contents were entertainment (69.8 percent), sports (41.2 percent), social affairs (36.5 percent), culture (35.3 percent), politics (30.9 percent) and economy (26 percent).

Though 93.2 percent responded they believe their media literacy level to be above average, a test based on controversial YouTube videos showed just 58.5 percent were able to distinguish fake news.

Kim pointed out that “it is becoming difficult to tell the difference between fake news and real news as information is being shared through mobile platforms on a real-time basis.”

“While there must be regulations toward ‘fake news,’ it is important that people are also given the opportunities to think about the proper function and role of media through education,” he said.

By Kim Jee-min (jeeminkim@heraldcorp.com)