Las Noticias falsas y desinformación sobre el Covid-19: análisis comparativo de seis países iberoamericanos

Liliana Gutiérrez-Coba; Patricia  Coba-Gutiérrez; Javier Andrés Gómez-Diaz

doi:10.4185/RLCS-2020-1476

Authors

Liliana Gutiérrez-Coba University of La Sabana https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5532-8765
Patricia Coba-Gutiérrez University of Ibagué https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0713-6280
Javier Andrés Gómez-Diaz University Corporation Minuto de Dios, UNIMINUTO. https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9729-7837

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.4185/RLCS-2020-1476

Keywords:

Fake news, Covid-19, Intentionality, Deception techniques, Transnationality, Iberoameric, Content Analysis.

Abstract

Introduction: Producers of misinformation and fake news find in fear, uncertainty in pandemic times, and virtual social networks facilitators for disseminating them, doing harder the task to detect them even for experts and laymen. Typologies designed to identify and classify hoaxes allow their analysis from theoretical perspectives such as echo chambers, filter bubbles, information manipulation, and cognitive dissonance. Method: A content analysis was developed with 371 fake news, previously verified by fact-checkers. After the intercoder test, it was proceeded to classify disinformation according to their type, intentionality, the main topic addressed, networks where they circulated, deception technique, country of origin, transnational character, among other variables. Results: The most common intent of fake news was ideological, associated with issues such as false announcements by governments, organizations, or public figures, as well as with false context elaboration technique. A quarter of the hoaxes analyzed were repeated in several countries, mainly promoting false cures with fabricated content as a deception technique. Discussion and Conclusions: Disinformation is a manipulation and filtering phenomenon based on ideological and emotional coincidence shared by those who circulate them. (Dis)information that converges with the users’ interests, makes its dissemination indiscriminate, and facilitates its transnationality, with slight modifications, without affecting its acceptance and recirculation.

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Author Biographies

Liliana Gutiérrez-Coba, University of La Sabana

Ph.D. in Information Sciences from the University of the Basque Country (Spain), with an emphasis on research on issues related to journalism, technologies, and public opinion. She is the director of the Journalism Research Group, GIP by its acronym in Spanish, of the University of La Sabana, from where she has dedicated herself to researching Information Quality in Journalism, both analog and digital. Senior Researcher Minciencias.

Patricia Coba-Gutiérrez, University of Ibagué

Degree in Spanish and English from the University of Tolima, Specialist in Teaching Literature from the University of Quindío. Magister in Education from the University of Tolima; Member of the Rastro Urbano research group; Junior researcher recognized by Minciencias (Colombia), Associate Professor at the University of Ibagué.

Javier Andrés Gómez-Diaz, University Corporation Minuto de Dios, UNIMINUTO.

Psychosocial researcher and Ph.D. student in Psychology, professor of quantitative methods and psychometry, recognized by Minciencias (Colombia), member of the research group Basic and Applied Psychology for Social Development.

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