Younger people are exposed to misinformation that circulates rapidly on their mobile devices through instant messaging applications such as WhatsApp. Under the guise of news, an attractive format and outrage discourse, fake news appeal to their emotions by inviting them to distribute them impulsively. All of this is supported by a device—the mobile phone—in which the action of sharing is a matter of trust. Therefore, they are less likely to check a piece of content before resending it if it comes from a contact in their personal address book. To understand young people’s habits when receiving informative content through WhatsApp and the reasons why they choose to share it or not, this study designed a “Questionnaire on Student Habits for Sharing Fake News on the Mobile” (CHECK-M), to measure young teenagers’ exposure to “fake news” and their behavior. Empirical data, from a sample of 480 adolescents, confirmed that (1) they are more likely to share content if it connects with their interests, regardless of its truthfulness, that (2) trust affects the credibility of information, and that (3) the appearance of newsworthy information ensures that, regardless of the nature of the content, this information is more likely to be shared among young people.

The spread of online disinformation is one of the 10 global risks of the future according to the World Economic Forum, and 51% of experts believe that this situation will not improve in the coming years. By 2022, half of the news will be fake news. In terms of users, young people and adults have problems understanding where the information they find online comes from and what sources to trust or not. In order to ascertain the degree of credibility that young users in Andalucía give to information, this study presents the results of the evaluation of online news by university students pursuing degrees in communication and education (N = 188), using the CRAAP test. The data reveal differences in gender and degree programme in the credibility assigned to the news. The conclusion is that university students have difficulty differentiating the veracity of the sources, in line with previous studies, with fake news earning higher ratings than real news.

Young people’s exposure to fake news is a growing concern in terms of the risks that are beginning to emerge related to health (anxiety and stress), democracy (loss of trust in the media and institutions) and post-truth (permanent questioning of the facts). To ascertain Spanish adolescents’ exposure to false news, their level of awareness and how they value the credibility of digital information, the ‘CHECK-M’ questionnaire was designed and administered to 480 adolescents (N = 480). The results reveal that most have heard of fake news but trust their abilities to detect this kind of content. This self-confidence leads them to also state that they know that there is information designed explicitly to deceive citizens. However, when evaluating the veracity of information, they do not attach importance to fundamental criteria such as having a recognized author or being accurate. This raises the need to reinforce adolescents’ critical thinking starting in the most elementary stages of education.

El desorden informativo (sátira o parodia, conexión falsa, contenido engañoso, contexto falso, contenido impostor, contenido manipulado o contenido fabricado) debe ser considerado como un problema social en la medida en que se empiezan a demostrar sus daños colectivos, que amenazan a la sociedad digital. De forma particular, las mujeres están siendo víctimas de hostilidades en los espacios de interacción virtuales, lo que se empieza a conocer como “sexismo digital” y “desinformación de género”. En este escenario, el periodismo de verificación, un formato tendencia, trata de paliar los efectos de los bulos introduciendo, entre sus rutinas profesionales, el desmentido de esos contenidos; sin embargo, aún es un trabajo minoritario. Para contribuir al estudio del fenómeno de la desinformación, en relación con los mensajes que circulan en Internet sobre las mujeres, esta investigación propone una herramienta de clasificación sistemática de los bulos desmentidos por el medio Maldita.es, en concreto, aquellos publicados en su sección Maldito Feminismo (N=71). Los resultados de este estudio (que tienen una validez interna) revelan que los bulos detectados por Maldito Feminismo son noticias falsas de contenido engañoso, que buscan dañar el feminismo (ya que este es el tema principal de la mayoría de bulos analizados) y tienen un propósito político. Estos desórdenes informativos se crean y distribuyen, principalmente, a través de las redes sociales en formato texto. Aunque los usuarios colaboran y participan en la detección y denuncia de los bulos, normalmente, suele ser la plataforma Maldita Feminismo quien identifica, localiza y delata la mayoría de noticias falsas.

El trabajo del periodista, en los entornos digitales, demanda una actualización constante de sus rutinas y procesos. Fenómenos recientes como la infodemia y la desinformación son una muestra de ello; por ejemplo, en los últimos años, las redacciones de los medios han tenido que centrar sus esfuerzos no solo en informar, sino en luchar contra informaciones engañosas publicadas y distribuidas para, en muchos casos, dañar a la opinión pública. A este trabajo se le ha denominado periodismo de verificación, que parece exigir nuevos talentos en el periodista. Este hecho ha puesto de manifiesto la necesidad de revisar las competencias que adquieren los estudiantes de los grados relacionados con la Comunicación específicamente y, de forma añadida, la Educación, pues aquí se encuentran también los potenciales alfabetizadores en medios. Por tanto, la presente investigación tiene como objetivo formular esas competencias de verificación que permitan al alumnado adquirir el conjunto de habilidades y destrezas necesario para su ejercicio. Para ello, este estudio se sirve del método juicio de expertos (N=18), a través del que se solicitó -mediante un cuestionario diseñado ad hoc- su valoración sobre la relevancia de las competencias y sus categorías. Los resultados permiten afirmar que existen unas destrezas y capacidades concretas y novedosas que demanda una nueva práctica periodística: el periodismo de verificación y que, por ende, deberían contemplarse estas nuevas competencias en los planes de Educación Superior para garantizar una enseñanza más acorde a las nuevas formas de ejercer una disciplina sujeta a continuos cambios.

The work of libraries during the COVID-19 pandemic, as facilitators of reliable information on health issues, has shown that these entities can play an active role as verification agents in the fight against disinformation (false information that is intended to mislead), focusing on media and informational literacy. To help citizens, these entities have developed a wide range of actions that range from online seminars, to learning how to evaluate the quality of a source, to video tutorials or the creation of repositories with resources of various natures. To identify the most common media literacy practices in the face of fake news (news that conveys or incorporates false, fabricated, or deliberately misleading information), this exploratory study designed an ad hoc analysis sheet, validated by the inter-judge method, which allowed one to classify the practices of N = 216 libraries from all over the world. The results reveal that the libraries most involved in this task are those belonging to public universities. Among the actions carried out to counteract misinformation, open-access materials that favor self-learning stand out. These resources, aimed primarily at university students and adults in general, are aimed at acquiring skills related to fact-checking and critical thinking. Therefore, libraries vindicate their role as components of the literacy triad, together with professors and communication professionals.