IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/gam/jpubli/v9y2021i2p24-d567456.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Fake News Reaching Young People on Social Networks: Distrust Challenging Media Literacy

Author

Listed:
  • Ana Pérez-Escoda

    (Department of Communication, Antonio de Nebrija University, C. de Sta. Cruz de Marcenado 27, 28015 Madrid, Spain)

  • Luis Miguel Pedrero-Esteban

    (Department of Communication, Antonio de Nebrija University, C. de Sta. Cruz de Marcenado 27, 28015 Madrid, Spain)

  • Juana Rubio-Romero

    (Department of Communication, Antonio de Nebrija University, C. de Sta. Cruz de Marcenado 27, 28015 Madrid, Spain)

  • Carlos Jiménez-Narros

    (Department of Communication, Antonio de Nebrija University, C. de Sta. Cruz de Marcenado 27, 28015 Madrid, Spain)

Abstract

Current societies are based on huge flows of information and knowledge circulating on the Internet, created not only by traditional means but by all kinds of users becoming producers, which leads to fake news and misinformation. This situation has been exacerbated by the pandemic to an unprecedented extent through social media, with special concern among young people. This study aims to provide significant data about the youngest generation in Spain (Generation Z) regarding their media and information consumption, their social network use, and their relationship with fake news, all in relation to the feeling of reliability/trust. Focusing on a convenience sample of 408 young Spanish students from Generation Z aged 18 to 22, a descriptive exploratory study is presented. Data collection was performed with an adapted questionnaire. Results show that young Spanish people use networks for information, showing a surprising lack of trust in social networks as the media they consume the most. The content they consume the most since the occurrence of COVID-19 is related to politics, entertainment, humor, and music. On the other hand, distrust of politicians, media, and journalists is evident. The conclusion is that media literacy is still more necessary than ever, but with the added challenge of mistrust: maybe it is time to rethink media literacy.

Suggested Citation

  • Ana Pérez-Escoda & Luis Miguel Pedrero-Esteban & Juana Rubio-Romero & Carlos Jiménez-Narros, 2021. "Fake News Reaching Young People on Social Networks: Distrust Challenging Media Literacy," Publications, MDPI, vol. 9(2), pages 1-16, June.
    • Handle: RePEc:gam:jpubli:v:9:y:2021:i:2:p:24-:d:567456
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2304-6775/9/2/24/pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2304-6775/9/2/24/
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Tasnim, Samia & Hossain, Md Mahbub & Mazumder, Hoimonty, 2020. "Impact of rumors or misinformation on coronavirus disease (COVID-19) in social media," SocArXiv uf3zn, Center for Open Science.
    2. Bárbara Castillo-Abdul & Mónica Bonilla-del-Río & Estela Núñez-Barriopedro, 2021. "Influence and Relationship between Branded Content and the Social Media Consumer Interactions of the Luxury Fashion Brand Manolo Blahnik," Publications, MDPI, vol. 9(1), pages 1-15, March.
    3. Rajagopal, 2013. "Social Media Metrics," Palgrave Macmillan Books, in: Managing Social Media and Consumerism, chapter 7, pages 132-151, Palgrave Macmillan.
    4. Islam, A.K.M. Najmul & Laato, Samuli & Talukder, Shamim & Sutinen, Erkki, 2020. "Misinformation sharing and social media fatigue during COVID-19: An affordance and cognitive load perspective," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 159(C).
    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. Erika L. Peter & Peter J. Kwantes & Madeleine T. D’Agata & Janani Vallikanthan, 2024. "The role of personality traits and online behavior in belief in fake news," Palgrave Communications, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 11(1), pages 1-10, December.
    2. Juan Bartolomé & Pablo Garaizar, 2022. "Design and Validation of a Novel Tool to Assess Citizens’ Netiquette and Information and Data Literacy Using Interactive Simulations," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(6), pages 1-28, March.
    3. Andreea Nistor & Eduard Zadobrischi, 2022. "The Influence of Fake News on Social Media: Analysis and Verification of Web Content during the COVID-19 Pandemic by Advanced Machine Learning Methods and Natural Language Processing," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(17), pages 1-24, August.

    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. Valentina Carfora & Patrizia Catellani, 2022. "Advertising Innovative Sustainable Fashion: Informational, Transformational, or Sustainability Appeal?," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(23), pages 1-21, December.
    2. Yousef Ahmad El Dameh & Hamad AL Ghadeer, 2021. "The Impact of Traditional Direct Marketing on Creating Brand Awareness: Case Study on IKEA in Jordan," International Journal of Business and Management, Canadian Center of Science and Education, vol. 14(3), pages 130-130, July.
    3. Stefano Di Lauro & Aizhan Tursunbayeva & Gilda Antonelli & Marcello Martinez, 2021. "Organizational and Corporate Identity on Social Media: A Literature Review," International Journal of Business and Management, Canadian Center of Science and Education, vol. 15(4), pages 1-53, July.
    4. Yadav, Manjit S. & de Valck, Kristine & Hennig-Thurau, Thorsten & Hoffman, Donna L. & Spann, Martin, 2013. "Social Commerce: A Contingency Framework for Assessing Marketing Potential," Journal of Interactive Marketing, Elsevier, vol. 27(4), pages 311-323.
    5. Antoniadis, Konstantinos & Grougiou, Vasiliki & Zafiropoulos, Kostas & Vrana, Vasiliki & Theocharidis, Anastasios Ioannis, 2018. "The use of Facebook and Twitter by DMOs in Europe," MPRA Paper 98936, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    6. Tuleu Daniela, 2015. "Antecedents Of Customer Relationship Management Capabilities," Annals of Faculty of Economics, University of Oradea, Faculty of Economics, vol. 1(1), pages 1285-1294, July.
    7. Liu, Hongfei & Liu, Wentong & Yoganathan, Vignesh & Osburg, Victoria-Sophie, 2021. "COVID-19 information overload and generation Z's social media discontinuance intention during the pandemic lockdown," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 166(C).
    8. Chukwuere Joshua Ebere, 2022. "The Analysis on the Use of Social Media in Managing the Covid-19 Pandemic Information Flow," HOLISTICA – Journal of Business and Public Administration, Sciendo, vol. 13(1), pages 73-80, July.
    9. Xia, Huosong & Wang, Yuan & Zhang, Justin Zuopeng & Zheng, Leven J. & Kamal, Muhammad Mustafa & Arya, Varsha, 2023. "COVID-19 fake news detection: A hybrid CNN-BiLSTM-AM model," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 195(C).
    10. Ronnie Das & Wasim Ahmed, 2022. "Rethinking Fake News: Disinformation and Ideology during the time of COVID-19 Global Pandemic," IIM Kozhikode Society & Management Review, , vol. 11(1), pages 146-159, January.
    11. Pilar, Ladislav & Balcarova, Tereza & Rojik, Stanislav & Ticha, Ivana & Polakova, Jana, 2018. "Customer experience with farmers’ markets: what hashtags can reveal," International Food and Agribusiness Management Review, International Food and Agribusiness Management Association, vol. 21(6), July.
    12. Ivanete Schneider Hahn & Flavia Luciane Scherer & Kenny Basso & Marindia Brachak dos Santos, 2016. "Consumer Trust in and Emotional Response to Advertisements on Social Media and their Influence on Brand Evaluation," Brazilian Business Review, Fucape Business School, vol. 13(4), pages 49-71, July.
    13. Matej Kovač & Vesna Žabkar, 2020. "Do Social Media and E-Mail Engagement Impact Reputation and Trust-Driven Behavior?," Tržište/Market, Faculty of Economics and Business, University of Zagreb, vol. 32(1), pages 9-25.
    14. Xing, Yunfei & Zhang, Justin Zuopeng & Teng, Guangqing & Zhou, Xiaotang, 2024. "Voices in the digital storm: Unraveling online polarization with ChatGPT," Technology in Society, Elsevier, vol. 77(C).
    15. Ana Babić Rosario & Kristine Valck & Francesca Sotgiu, 2020. "Conceptualizing the electronic word-of-mouth process: What we know and need to know about eWOM creation, exposure, and evaluation," Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science, Springer, vol. 48(3), pages 422-448, May.
    16. Adhikari, Pawan & Upadhaya, Bedanand & Wijethilake, Chaminda & Dhakal Adhikari, Shovita, 2023. "The sociomateriality of digitalisation in Nepalese NGOs," The British Accounting Review, Elsevier, vol. 55(5).
    17. Singh, Pallavi & Bala, Hillol & Dey, Bidit Lal & Filieri, Raffaele, 2022. "Enforced remote working: The impact of digital platform-induced stress and remote working experience on technology exhaustion and subjective wellbeing," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 151(C), pages 269-286.
    18. Tandon, Anushree & Dhir, Amandeep & Talwar, Shalini & Kaur, Puneet & Mäntymäki, Matti, 2021. "Dark consequences of social media-induced fear of missing out (FoMO): Social media stalking, comparisons, and fatigue," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 171(C).
    19. Ana-Irina Lequeux-Dincă & Amira-Andreea Sava & Camelia Teodorescu & Aurel Gheorghilaş & Mioara Clius, 2022. "Sport Event Tourism in Bucharest. UEFA EURO 2020 Case Study," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(21), pages 1-29, November.
    20. Mojisola Erdt & Htet Htet Aung & Ashley Sara Aw & Charlie Rapple & Yin-Leng Theng, 2017. "Analysing researchers’ outreach efforts and the association with publication metrics: A case study of Kudos," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 12(8), pages 1-25, August.

    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:2:p:24-:d:567456. 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.