Disinformation and fake news

studying communication students in a higher education institution

Authors

  • Nídia Salomé Morais Instituto Politécnico de Viseu
  • Manuel Cruz Instituto Politécnico de Viseu

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.14195/2183-6019_11_2

Keywords:

Disinformation, fake news, students, higher education, Portugal

Abstract

The study presented in this article addresses the disinformation issue and looks for current actions that tackle this phenomenon. In this sense, an investigation was conducted in a Higher Education Institution in Portugal, in the academic year 2019/2020, involving 56 students from a course in the area of communication towards understanding how future communication professionals deal with information present online. The data obtained through the questionnaire reveals that the students use social networks every day to access information material and recognize that digital media literacy as the most effective means to undertake disinformation, although they themselves showed some vulnerabilities to it. This research also found that students can distinguish credible texts from fake news, although they find it difficult to distinguish respected websites from websites that share fake news.

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Published

2020-12-28

Issue

No. 11 (2020): (Dis)information in times of uncertainty: journalism, democracy and social networks

Section

Artigos

License

Copyright (c) 2020 Mediapolis - Journal of Communication, Journalism and Public Space

Creative Commons License

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

Authors retain copyright and grant the journal right of first publication with the work simultaneously licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution License that allows sharing the work with recognition of authorship and initial publication in Antropologia Portuguesa journal.