Heuristic and Systematic Processing on Social Media: Pathways from Literacy to Fact-Checking Behavior

Misinformation circulating on social media presents a critical challenge for journalism and media education in the digital age. Beyond individual news consumption, it reflects broader concerns about cognitive processing and the cultivation of transversal competencies that underpin responsible digital citizenship. This study examines how foundational literacy shapes online fact-checking behavior through the mediating role of news literacy and whether this relationship is moderated by heuristic–systematic processing within social media environments. An online survey of South Korean college students was conducted, and moderated mediation analysis revealed that foundational literacy indirectly fosters fact-checking through enhanced news literacy. However, reliance on heuristic shortcuts weakened this pathway, highlighting how cognitive biases can undermine critical verification in digital contexts. These findings suggest that journalism education would benefit from moving beyond functional skills to incorporate awareness of platform-driven information flows, reflective media engagement, and critical evaluation into curricula. By positioning news literacy as a core competency for contemporary digital environments, this study contributes to ongoing discussions on how higher education can prepare future journalists and media users to navigate complex, technology-mediated information ecosystems with ethical and epistemic responsibility.