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.
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.
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