Desinformación y alfabetización mediática desde las instituciones: los decálogos contra las fake news

Abstract

In an environment characterized by infoxication, the speed and immediacy of information circulation, the emotionality of the messages, the virality, the horizontality in the content production, and the lack of trust in institutions and media, we consider vital the role that institutions play through their institutional advertising to deal with misinformation. For this reason, our research aims to establish whether there is coherence between the institutional visual campaigns, about fake news during Covid-19 and the recommendations of national and international bodies, such as the European Commission, UNESCO and the WHO. Based on the importance that these organizations give to the contextualization and consequences of the problem, we analyzed a representative sample of 20 visual resources through content analysis and discursive analysis to assess whether the approach of these campaigns is appropiate. We also studied the virality of the information through an analysis of the content diffusion on Twitter. Our results indicated an insufficient number of posters and decalogues, along with their limitation in dealing with disinformation. First of all, we observed a lack of coordination in the framing of the problem, because despite the detection mechanisms (contrast, source analysis, medium) are specified, and the non-viralization / dissemination is urged, intentionality and repercussion are directly and indirectly ignored. A 60% of the analysed decalogues did not mention the consequences of disinformation, neither in the short nor in the long term. A 20% explains the economic or political benefit that could be obtained from the dissemination of a deception and 15% explains the possible damage to health or reputation. Only a 5% mention the polarisation of public opinion. The secondary effects of fake news that institutional advertising exposed were: the damage to the digital identity, discrimination against individuals, the advantage of unethical businesses, the reduction in media confidence, the decrease in critical thinking, and the undermining of the confidence of institutions that do not even appear in the decalogues. Secondly, we appreciated a restriction of the campaigns to the child and adolescent public, as well as to adults in the role of parents. Dissemination is also a pending task for the institutions, since none of the initiatives were successful and went viral on Twitter, even less so in the case of the campaigns that we consider more complete in their approach. The conclusions of this work invite to revisit the institutional communication and advertising as tools for media and digital literacy through coordination with the media, journalists, educators, politicians and experts in the field. Order PCM / 1030/2020, of October 30, which publishes the procedure for action against disinformation opens a new path to study information disorders in Spain. From this point, the objective should be to analyse it from a structural prism which empowers citizens, not to assign them total responsibility for how they receive information.