Media literacy as a strategy to counter fake news

Abstract

This study was conducted with the objective of integrating media literacy in the teaching-learning process to develop students' critical thinking in the face of fake news. For its execution, a non-experimental design of descriptive transectional type was applied, using quantitative methodology, with the implementation of a survey to 596 high school students of Loja-Ecuador. The results obtained showed that students mainly access or receive information from social networks and that they are aware that these are not a reliable source; that although they try to look for more sources of information they are not able to discern between real information and fake news and, therefore, they limit themselves to observe, which means that they are not making an adequate and efficient use of the media available in today's knowledge society.