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Infodemic and Fake News in Spain during the COVID-19 Pandemic

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 action...

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Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores principales: Fernández-Torres, María Jesús, Almansa-Martínez, Ana, Chamizo-Sánchez, Rocío
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: MDPI 2021
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7918895/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/33673095
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/ijerph18041781
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author Fernández-Torres, María Jesús
Almansa-Martínez, Ana
Chamizo-Sánchez, Rocío
author_facet Fernández-Torres, María Jesús
Almansa-Martínez, Ana
Chamizo-Sánchez, Rocío
author_sort Fernández-Torres, María Jesús
collection PubMed
description 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.
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spelling pubmed-79188952021-03-02 Infodemic and Fake News in Spain during the COVID-19 Pandemic Fernández-Torres, María Jesús Almansa-Martínez, Ana Chamizo-Sánchez, Rocío Int J Environ Res Public Health Article 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. MDPI 2021-02-12 2021-02 /pmc/articles/PMC7918895/ /pubmed/33673095 http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/ijerph18041781 Text en © 2021 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).
spellingShingle Article
Fernández-Torres, María Jesús
Almansa-Martínez, Ana
Chamizo-Sánchez, Rocío
Infodemic and Fake News in Spain during the COVID-19 Pandemic
title Infodemic and Fake News in Spain during the COVID-19 Pandemic
title_full Infodemic and Fake News in Spain during the COVID-19 Pandemic
title_fullStr Infodemic and Fake News in Spain during the COVID-19 Pandemic
title_full_unstemmed Infodemic and Fake News in Spain during the COVID-19 Pandemic
title_short Infodemic and Fake News in Spain during the COVID-19 Pandemic
title_sort infodemic and fake news in spain during the covid-19 pandemic
topic Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7918895/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/33673095
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/ijerph18041781
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