Abstract
Current societies are based on huge flows of information and knowledge circulating on the Internet, created not only by traditional means but by all kinds of users becoming producers, which leads to fake news and misinformation. This situation has been exacerbated by the pandemic to an unprecedented extent through social media, with special concern among young people. This study aims to provide significant data about the youngest generation in Spain (Generation Z) regarding their media and information consumption, their social network use, and their relationship with fake news, all in relation to the feeling of reliability/trust. Focusing on a convenience sample of 408 young Spanish students from Generation Z aged 18 to 22, a descriptive exploratory study is presented. Data collection was performed with an adapted questionnaire. Results show that young Spanish people use networks for information, showing a surprising lack of trust in social networks as the media they consume the most. The content they consume the most since the occurrence of COVID-19 is related to politics, entertainment, humor, and music. On the other hand, distrust of politicians, media, and journalists is evident. The conclusion is that media literacy is still more necessary than ever, but with the added challenge of mistrust: maybe it is time to rethink media literacy.
Highlights
Since COVID-19 was first detected in December 2019 in Wuhan (China), the entire world has struggled with an unprecedented crisis affecting all orders of human life: social relations, economy, labor market, industry, entertainment, journalism, and education [1,2].Economies around the world have been affected, and stock markets in all countries have suffered losses
Data gathering was arranged with the design of an instrument adapted from the report Media Use in the European Union [37] and Digital News Report.es 2020 [38], both focused on media and social media consumption and fake news
The final questionnaire was the result of a twofold process: (1) first, the team designed an adapted questionnaire in which four different blocks were established: (a) sociodemographic variables, (b) variables related to media consumption, (c) variables related to social network consumption, and (d) variables related to disinformation and fake news; and (2) second, it was sent to a panel of experts for validation (n = 5) in an attempt to seek internal coherence and clarity for the studied constructs
Summary
Since COVID-19 was first detected in December 2019 in Wuhan (China), the entire world has struggled with an unprecedented crisis affecting all orders of human life: social relations, economy, labor market, industry, entertainment, journalism, and education [1,2].Economies around the world have been affected, and stock markets in all countries have suffered losses. Since social networks emerged at the beginning of the present century, the status of information and knowledge has been transformed, experiencing a remarkable change that has implied a wider online environment enhanced by all users This new information ecosystem [6,7], providing more freedom in a communicational manner, has presented from the beginning a major problem: allowing people to spread misinformation without surveillance has promoted an information disorder that is difficult to manage and control [8,9]. The implications of these changes can be highlighted from two different perspectives: (1) referring to democratic societies in terms of trust in politicians and institutions and in media and journalism [10] and (2) in terms
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