Bulos durante la pandemia del Covid-19 en España: un estudio a través de Google Trends

Alberto Daniel Villa Gracia; Víctor Cerdán Martínez

doi:10.4185/RLCS-2020-1473

Authors

Alberto Daniel Villa Gracia Complutense University of Madrid https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1618-0459
Víctor Cerdán Martínez Complutense University of Madrid https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0069-5063

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.4185/RLCS-2020-1473

Keywords:

bulo, fake, Covid-19, Google Trends, post-truth, state of alarm, Coronavirus, audiovisual

Abstract

Introduction: On March 14, 2020, the state of alarm was declared in Spain to stop the expansion of a new type of coronavirus. Facing the proliferation of fake news about the pandemic and the political and social situation, the Spanish government declared a plan to fight hoaxes that could harm the social climate. Methodology: This research performs a quantitative analysis of searches in Spain for the terms “bulo” and “fake” on Google during a historical period and compares them with the pandemic in Spain through a regression analysis. Results: A historical peak of searches for “bulo” was observed one month before the worst data on deaths in Spain were reached and a positive correlation (r = 0.966) in the comparison of searches for the word “bulo” and the victims by Covid-19. Discussion: The analysis indicates that statistically the data from Google searches for the word “bulo” and daily deaths have a similar growth relationship during the period of the pandemic's expansion in Spain. This does not happen in "fake". Conclusions: the interest in “bulo” and “fake” increases the day after the implementation of the alarm state. The citizens were interested in looking for information related to hoaxes and fakes. Furthermore, citizens' interest in both terms precedes the government's statements about its intention to fight against false news.

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Author Biographies

Alberto Daniel Villa Gracia, Complutense University of Madrid

Daniel Villa Gracia (Zaragoza, 1982) has a degree in Advertising and Public Relations, and Audiovisual Communication, with a Ph.D. in this latter field since 2015. He has been working as editor and post-producer in films, television and advertising for over 15 years. In 2018, he obtained a fellowship from the Japan Foundation to develop a research project at its Kansai institute in Osaka, Japan, until mid-2019. He is currently an associate professor at the Applied Communication Department of the Faculty of Information Sciences of the Complutense University of Madrid.

Víctor Cerdán Martínez, Complutense University of Madrid

Víctor Cerdán (Madrid, 1983), has a degree in journalism and a Ph.D. in Information Sciences from the Complutense University of Madrid (2011). He is a Ph.D. Assistant Professor at the Department of Applied Communication Sciences of the Complutense University of Madrid. In the professional field, he has directed two seasons of the international documentary series Héroes Invisibles for the Spanish public television network (RTVE). In the film industry, he has directed and produced the following short films: Radio Atacama, El Mal and Caracoles Serranos, awarded and screened at international film festivals. He has written four book chapters and has published six articles in communication and social sciences indexed journals (ESPI, JCR and/or SJR). Since 2019, he has been a member of the research group “Procesamiento cerebral durante el visionado de películas” [EN: Brain processing during movie viewing] of the Faculty of Medicine of the Complutense University of Madrid, where he conducts experiments through electroencephalography (EEG) to study viewers’ reaction during their viewing of audiovisual content.

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