engleski

Who Knows What Fake News Look Like?

The concept of fake news is not a new concept, but has existed since the invention of printed media. In modern times, due to technological advances, news is massively spreading through online platforms and social media, since it is faster, cheaper and has more reach, making it easier than ever to spread disinformation and misinformation. Fake news is defined as “news articles that are intentionally and verifiably false and could mislead readers” (Shuy, K., Slivaz, A., Wangy, S., Tang, J. and Liuy, H., 2017). They include “false information that can be verified as such and are created with dishonest intention to mislead consumers” (Shuy, K., et al., 2017). Previous studies have operationalized fake news in six ways: as satire, parody, fabrication, manipulation, propaganda, and advertising (Tandoc Jr., E. C., Lim, Z. W. and Ling, R., 2018), which makes recognizing fake news that much more complicated. There are numerous programs and systems available today that can automatically detect fake news (e.g., Snopes, Hoaxy, Politifact, etc.), but the most important part of detecting fake news is information and media literacy of the audience that enables them to evaluate presented information and recognize false news. This research will focus on students of the Department of Information Sciences at the University of Zadar. The aim of this research is to examine the way students of information sciences evaluate news and information conveyed through news articles. The main purpose is to determine their level of understanding of fake news and to assess their ability to identify them. It is planned to test a minimum of 30 students using a two-part survey questionnaire. The first part will consist of closed and open questions that will showcase their news seeking habits and behavior. The second part will consist of an assessment task containing 7 daily newspaper articles of questionable content for participants to evaluate following checklist of elements which are most important for recognizing fake news. Research questions in this research are: 1) how students evaluate everyday news articles ; 2) does information literacy help in recognition of elements of fake news ; 3) to what extent are students aware of the existence of fake news in daily news outlets and how they recognize them. The results will show their ability to evaluate the news and recognize false or misleading content. The importance of this research is to showcase if the students of information sciences are able to recognize fake news and evaluate information in everyday news articles as well as to determine the importance of information literacy, media literacy and other skills gained via education/study program when dealing with fake news. Also, this research may serve as a basis for further research and comparison between students in other fields of study.

fake news ; information literacy ; media literacy ; university students

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