Conspiracy theories, credibility and trust in information

Abstract

The rapid spread of social media on the Internet has resulted in strong changes in the information and communication landscape. Their inadequate use has given rise to new discussions on truth and post-truth, what is trustworthy and what is questionable, the credibility of messages and their sources. Through this article we aim to examine what citizens believe about the information they receive and if they feel whether or not there is withholding of information. This will be achieved through data obtained from a survey of a statistically representative sample of the Andalusian population over the age of 18 (1,103 respondents, with a maximum margin of error of +/- 3%). One of the main results of this research is the serious lack of credibility of the information received, as many Andalusians (68.1%) believe that information is withheld from them. We have also observed several factors explaining a greater likelihood of finding a high belief in the conspiracy theory on the withholding of information. Finally, the article reflects on the consequences of mistrust in information and we propose an inter- and transdisciplinary approach in order to counteract this mistrust.

Disinformation Perception by Digital and Social Audiences: Threat Awareness, Decision-Making and Trust in Media Organizations

“…The research results describe audience performance recorded in past reception studies, but there is hardly any research that addresses the perception of disinformation from the perspective of the audiences themselves. The few research studies carried out on this issue [57][58][59] came to the conclusion that the audience's perception of disinformation and fake news is still low [43].…”

Citizen Perceptions of Fake News in Spain: Socioeconomic, Demographic, and Ideological Differences

“…Besides the interest of the topic of study, this article enriches existing quantitative literature by using a deep statistical approach to fake news in a Spanish setting. However, despite not being the most common approach, several works in Spanish academia have applied surveys related to our topic of study, such as the surveys developed by Gualda and Rúas and Masip, Suau, and Ruiz-Caballero [8][9][10][11]. Many works have also focused on more specific aspects, including several studies on fact-checking activities [12,13] and media analyses [14,15].…”