Internet, new technologies and social networks have changed the consumption and dissemination of information. The world is witnessing the proliferation of so-called false news, especially since the beginning of 2020, when COVID-19 became the main issue on the global agenda. Alleged government actions, remedies, advice, etc., are the cause of a multitude of messages that are often false. Through surveys (1115 responses were obtained) and a review of the literature, we explore how the proliferation of COVID-19’s false news affects and impacts public opinion in Spain. We also examine how citizens are being informed about the pandemic, identify the main channels of communication used and discover the impact of misinformation. The main conclusions are that, in Spain, citizens are interested in information related to the coronavirus, but there is a lack of media credibility and reliability; the social networks and instant messaging are considered the channels that transmit the greatest amount of false news.

Introducción. Un año después del inicio del estado de alarma en España se ha realizado un estudio para comprobar cuál es la situación de las noticias falsas. Metodología. Se ha realizado análisis de contenido de todas las verificaciones realizadas por las plataformas de fact checking Maldito Bulo y Newtral durante el mes del aniversario (14 de marzo a 14 de abril de 2021). En total, se han analizado 255 fact checks. Resultados. Son las noticias falsas sobre el debate político, al margen de la pandemia, las que más se están difundiendo. Los contenidos relacionados con la crisis sanitaria más difundidos son los vinculados con las vacunas y el proceso de vacunación. Casi una cuarta parte de los bulos tiene como protagonista al Gobierno de España, a gobiernos autonómicos y a otras instituciones, siendo el Ejecutivo español del que más se habla. Por el contrario, la mitad de las informaciones falsas detectadas han sido creadas por personas que no son conocidas socialmente o por personas cuya identidad se desconoce, también por los medios de comunicación y partidos de la oposición. Conclusiones y Discusión. Encontramos que las noticias falsas sobre la COVID-19 suponen un año más tarde poco más de una cuarta parte de todos los bulos existentes, lo que supone un claro descenso en comparación con los primeros meses de pandemia. Las noticias falsas continúan siendo difundidas especialmente por Twitter y WhatsApp.

El estado de alarma causado por la COVID-19 invadió precipitadamente nuestras vidas con implicaciones no solo políticas, económicas o sanitarias, sino también educativas. La educación tuvo que adaptarse a un nuevo escenario en donde las Tecnologías de la Información y la Comunicación asumieron el protagonismo absoluto. Profesorado y alumnado tuvieron que acomodarse, de forma improvisada, a una educación a distancia para la que no estaban preparados, con unas materias cuyos programas estaban diseñados para una educación presencial y no exclusivamente virtual. Esta investigación pretende conocer la adaptación de la universidad española a este nuevo escenario, prestando especial atención a la comunicación desarrollada entre el docente y el discente, como pieza clave de una educación efectiva (Aliste, 2007). Se propone una investigación exploratoria con un cuestionario estructurado como herramienta metodológica dirigido a la comunidad educativa universitaria española. Los resultados muestran dificultad por parte de profesores y estudiantes a la hora de enfrentarse a la enseñanza telemática y advierten de la necesidad de una educación en línea que esté soportada en planificados programas docentes que garanticen la efectividad del proceso de enseñanzaaprendizaje. Tanto profesorado como alumnado señalan el empobrecimiento de la comunicación didáctica y social en la educación en línea desarrollada durante el estado de alarma. Las herramientas más empleadas y mejor valoradas por parte de los agentes del proceso han sido la videoconferencia y el correo electrónico.

As well as democratizing access to information and strengthening active audiences, the internet also fosters the manipulation of news and the propagation of false and violent content. Although disinformation and hate speech are not new phenomena, they are now expanding out of control, with women, including journalists, among their targets. The aim of this study is to establish the characteristics and magnitude of this problem and determine how it affects Spanish female sports journalists while carrying out their professional activities in the world of sports, a field where male supremacy is evident. This study seeks to identify the most frequent situations where this problem occurs, the types of harassment observed, the profile of the perpetrators, and above all, the consequences for the professional and personal life of these female professionals. A mixed-methods approach is used to measure the extent of this problem and determine the experience and opinion of female sports journalists using an anonymous questionnaire. This qualitative approach is reinforced by in-depth interviews with female sports journalists who have been victims of hate speech. This dual approach enables the identification of paradigmatic models of a cognitive-behavioral nature, with findings that reveal disturbing figures. Indeed, 89.6% of the professionals participating in this study stated that they had been victims of hate speech and other forms of harassment, both through social networks as well as in their work environment, principally questioning their work capacity or mentioning their physical appearance. The profile of the perpetrators was revealed, as well as the perception that this type of aggression is a common practice that can lead to self-censorship. This situation requires that urgent measures be implemented to address this problem, such as the addition of media literacy and gender training to the educational curriculum.

The development of the Internet and the appearance of social networks has completely changed the way we relate. Influencers are important in the new paradigm composed by the different professionals of the digital environments because they have the ability to influence certain audiences when they share an opinion or assessment about products, brands or services. Followers respond to common interests being the centre of communication on social networks (Sicilia and Palazón, 2008). From an organizational perspective, social networks are a very important tool in relations with the stakeholders. Social networks have become a fundamental tool to position brands in the minds of consumers (Chu, 2011). Social networks are already a reality within the communication strategies of many companies (Qualman, 2013). In the field of public relations, many companies are trying to make the most of social media and Instagram becomes an indispensable tool for companies working in the beauty sector. Social networks have overcome the limitations that traditional media usually brought and have enabled users to proactively interact with the organization. This is the result of the process of transformation of social networks (Kilgour et al., 2015). Currently, stakeholders have stopped perceiving the organization's messages as commercial content to be perceived as social content. Furthermore, these tools have generated new spheres of influence that have considerably altered the organization's stakeholders map. In particular, Instagram is the most evolved social network in 2019 and its penetration has grown exponentially in recent years. In this case, beauty influencers have increased their importance among opinion leaders on Instagram because they accumulate millions of followers with their content, allowing the user to be informed of market developments. This has led companies all over the world to include social networks as an essential part of their communication strategies in order to improve relations with their stakeholders. Thus, Instagram becomes an increasingly important tool to position their products or services, especially for entities operating in the beauty sector. This research aims to find out how beauty influencers implement their communication on the Instagram as well as how their followers receive them. Other objectives that have been established with this study are to know the degree of engagement among users and instagrammers, as well as to identify the contents and frequency of publication. For this purpose, the research applies a methodological triangulation based on a content analysis and a survey. The content analysis has been applied to the accounts that make up the sample: the five influencers with the most followers on Instagram; and the survey has been applied to a total of 300 users with a profile on the Instagram. The field research for content analysis lasted one year, from March 15, 2019 to March 15, 2020. Results confirm that beauty influencers have significant power of prescription despite limited communication effort they make. Furthermore, the number of reactions to posts is mostly proportional to the number of followers that influencers have, so the likes and comments are directly related to the number of followers that instagramers have. Instagram is revealed as a public relations tool for beauty brands.

Las relaciones públicas se configuran como una actividad esencial en la gestión de la comunicación con los públicos de los clubes de fútbol ya que son muy activos y su grado de reactividad es alto. Con este texto se analiza el papel que desempeñan las redes sociales en los clubes de fútbol que poseen mayor número de ingresos. Para ello, se desarrolla una metodología que estudia qué presencia tienen en las redes sociales, el número de seguidores, qué grado de interacción se produce entre clubes y públicos y los contenidos y las temáticas de los textos de las redes sociales. Los resultados muestran un público activo pero con intervenciones relacionadas con los resultados futbolísticos y una gestión comunicativa unidireccional por parte de los clubes.