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With the prevalence of social media in a digital age, accessing news on social media has become a daily routine of university students’ lives. However, little research has been done to examine their social media news use in detail, especially in Asian countries. To fill this gap, we aimed to examine what motivated university students to seek news on social media, to what extent they perceived they were in control of the influences of news, and whether news motives were related to their levels of news media literacy across three domains: (a) authors and audiences; (b) messages and meaning, and (c) representation and reality. One hundred and forty-seven university students from a university in Hong Kong participated. Among the four news motives, socializing was the most powerful predictor for news use on social media. Most students believed they were in control of news influences and demonstrated a high level of news media literacy, and those who believed themselves to be in control of news influences showed a higher level of news media literacy. In this sense, high news-literate students were more likely to seek news for socializing as compared to their low news-literate counterparts. Insights on educating students to use social media in a positive and smart way were discussed.

Con la prevalencia de las redes sociales en la era digital, acceder a las noticias en redes sociales se ha convertido en una rutina cotidiana en la vida de los universitarios. Sin embargo, se ha realizado mínima investigación sobre el uso de noticias en redes sociales, especialmente en los países asiáticos. Para colmar esta laguna, pretendemos examinar qué motivó a los universitarios a buscar noticias en redes sociales, en qué medida percibían que controlaban las influencias noticieras, y si las motivaciones noticieras se relacionaban con su nivel de alfabetismo mediático en tres dominios: a) autores y audiencias; b) mensajes y significados, y c) representación y realidad. Participaron 147 estudiantes de una universidad de Hong Kong. Entre las cuatro motivaciones, la socialización fue el indicador más poderoso. La mayoría de los estudiantes creían que podían controlar la influencia noticiera, demostrando un alto alfabetismo mediático. Los estudiantes con alto nivel de alfabetismo mediático son más propensos a buscar noticias para socializar, en comparación con las contrapartes con bajo nivel de alfabetismo. Se debatieron perspectivas sobre cómo educar a los estudiantes para emplear de una forma positiva e inteligente las redes sociales With the prevalence of social media in a digital age, accessing news on social media has become a daily routine of university students’ lives. However, little research has been done to examine their social media news use in detail, especially in Asian countries. To fill this gap, we aimed to examine what motivated university students to seek news on social media, to what extent they perceived they were in control of the influences of news, and whether news motives were related to their levels of news media literacy across three domains: (a) authors and audiences; (b) messages and meaning, and (c) representation and reality. One hundred and forty-seven university students from a university in Hong Kong participated. Among the four news motives, socializing was the most powerful predictor for news use on social media. Most students believed they were in control of news influences and demonstrated a high level of news media literacy, and those who believed themselves to be in control of news influences showed a higher level of news media literacy. In this sense, high news-literate students were more likely to seek news for socializing as compared to their low news-literate counterparts. Insights on educating students to use social media in a positive and smart way were discussed