Perceptions of Spanish citizens about disinformation in times of COVID-19: effects and mechanisms to fight against false news efectos y mecanismos de lucha contra las noticias falsas
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Disinformation has become one of the main problems for society and democracy. Despite the increase in research on this topic, citizen perception of the effects caused by fake news and how to combat them is yet an ongoing issue. Our objective is to analyze these two aspects in the context of COVID-19 in Spain. Also, we seek to identify the sociodemographic and political factors that determine them. We employed a quantitative survey run through an online panel (n= 682). The results indicate that disinformation generates, as the primary effect, an increase in mistrust towards the media and politicians among Spanish citizens. Likewise, the incidence of disinformation in the change of opinion and the decision to vote has dropped. Concerning Coronavirus, falsehoods had a low impact on vaccination, although they promoted conspiracy theories among citizens. Men, young people and far-right sympathizers perceive the consequences of hoaxes more intensely. Finally, fact-checking and legislation are the mechanisms to combat disinformation that citizens consider most reliable. These results have important implications for public institutions and journalism.
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