IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/gam/jpubli/v9y2021i1p2-d477046.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Young Spanish Adults and Disinformation: Do They Identify and Spread Fake News and Are They Literate in It?

Author

Listed:
  • Aida María de Vicente Domínguez

    (Department of Journalism, University of Malaga, 29100 Málaga, Spain)

  • Ana Beriain Bañares

    (Department of Communication, Universitat Abat Oliba CEU, CEU Universities, 08022 Barcelona, Spain)

  • Javier Sierra Sánchez

    (Department of Applied Communication Sciences, Complutense University of Madrid, 28040 Madrid, Spain)

Abstract

The infodiet of young Spanish adults aged 18 to 25 was analysed to determine their attitude towards fake news. The objectives were: to establish whether they have received any training in fake news; to determine whether they know how to identify fake information; and to investigate whether they spread it. The study employed a descriptive quantitative method consisting of a survey of 500 representative interviews of the Spanish population aged between 18 and 25 through a structured questionnaire. The results indicate that they are aware of the importance of training, although generally they do not know of any course and when they do, they do not tend to enroll on one either due to lack of interest or time. These young adults feel that they know how to identify fake content and, moreover, that they know how to do so very well. However, they do not use the best tools. While they do not always verify information, they mainly suspect the credibility of information when it is meaningless. However, they do not tend to spread fake information. We conclude that media information literacy training (MILT) is necessary in educational centres that focuses on the main issues identified.

Suggested Citation

  • Aida María de Vicente Domínguez & Ana Beriain Bañares & Javier Sierra Sánchez, 2021. "Young Spanish Adults and Disinformation: Do They Identify and Spread Fake News and Are They Literate in It?," Publications, MDPI, vol. 9(1), pages 1-16, January.
    • Handle: RePEc:gam:jpubli:v:9:y:2021:i:1:p:2-:d:477046
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2304-6775/9/1/2/pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2304-6775/9/1/2/
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Bertin Martens & Luis Aguiar & Estrella Gomez Herrera & Frank Muller, 2018. "The digital transformation of news media and the rise of disinformation and fake news," JRC Working Papers on Digital Economy 2018-02, Joint Research Centre.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Fabio Padovano & Pauline Mille, 2022. "Education, fake news and the PBC," Economics Working Paper from Condorcet Center for political Economy at CREM-CNRS 2022-01-ccr, Condorcet Center for political Economy.
    2. David Blanco-Herrero & Javier J. Amores & Patricia Sánchez-Holgado, 2021. "Citizen Perceptions of Fake News in Spain: Socioeconomic, Demographic, and Ideological Differences," Publications, MDPI, vol. 9(3), pages 1-13, August.
    3. Andrea Beatriz Damico & Margherita Masi & José María Aulicino & Yari Vecchio & Jorgelina Di Pasquale, 2022. "The Knowledge and Perception of Sustainability in Livestock Systems: Evidence from Future Professionals in Italy and Argentina," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(23), pages 1-16, December.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. van Gils, Freek & Müller, Wieland & Prüfer, Jens, 2020. "Big Data and Democracy," Other publications TiSEM ecc11d8d-1478-4dd2-b570-4, Tilburg University, School of Economics and Management.
    2. Domenico, Giandomenico Di & Sit, Jason & Ishizaka, Alessio & Nunan, Daniel, 2021. "Fake news, social media and marketing: A systematic review," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 124(C), pages 329-341.
    3. Raluca Buturoiu & Georgiana Udrea & Denisa-Adriana Oprea & Nicoleta Corbu, 2021. "Who Believes in Conspiracy Theories about the COVID-19 Pandemic in Romania? An Analysis of Conspiracy Theories Believers’ Profiles," Societies, MDPI, vol. 11(4), pages 1-16, November.
    4. Petratos, Pythagoras N., 2021. "Misinformation, disinformation, and fake news: Cyber risks to business," Business Horizons, Elsevier, vol. 64(6), pages 763-774.
    5. Bisceglia, Michele, 2023. "The unbundling of journalism," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 158(C).
    6. Moravec, Vaclav & Hynek, Nik & Skare, Marinko & Gavurova, Beata & Kubak, Matus, 2024. "Human or machine? The perception of artificial intelligence in journalism, its socio-economic conditions, and technological developments toward the digital future," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 200(C).

    More about this item

    Keywords

    fake news; young adults; Spain;
    All these keywords.

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:gam:jpubli:v:9:y:2021:i:1:p:2-:d:477046. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: MDPI Indexing Manager (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.mdpi.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.