Universidad Carlos III de Madrid (UC3M) has carried out a study which shows the desire of Spanish society to have mechanisms to ensure the veracity of the news they receive through the media on health issues. This demand, moreover, has proven to be a shared concern of the public, since neither age, gender nor social class is a determining factor in the public's response.
“The problem is that this request for external control demanded by the public contrasts with freedom of expression and the right to information - enshrined in Article 20 of the Spanish Constitution - which prohibits any act of censorship in journalistic activity,” explains Carlos Maciá-Barber, a member of the UC3M Department of Communication and author of the study.
However, the researcher comments that there are intermediate solutions that could be based on co-regulation, i.e. the creation of supervisory bodies made up of journalists (associations, unions) and experts (jurists, sociologists, institutional representatives and citizens). This could mitigate the reservations that part of society
maintains towards the media, especially on sensitive issues such as public health, since, according to another data obtained during the research, only 60% of the people who participated in the study stated that they believed that journalism seeks the truth.
“It is clear that if journalists want to avoid external interference, they must be extremely self-regulating and tell the truth with honesty and professional rigor, since in a post-pandemic context, guaranteeing truthful information is essential to protect not only the right to information, but also the right to health, two essential pillars in a democratic society”, points out Carlos Maciá-Barber.
The study, based on 1,800 online interviews nationwide and published in December 2024 in Frontiers in communication, also reflects the need to learn to combat disinformation and fake news from an early age, since people's perception of information manipulation varies according to age. For example, the research reveals that adults feel more confident when it comes to recognizing journalistic truth: “This happens because media consumption is much higher among the adult population which, in general, has a relatively high level of education and feels capable of discerning where the truth is and where the lie is,” explains the author of the research. “And precisely because of this self-perception of strength in the face of misinformation, adults verify less the news that reaches them through the media or networks.”
In turn, the results show that young people are more aware of their vulnerability and, therefore, make more sure whether the information they receive is truthful or not. “This low willingness of quite a few adults to contrast the messages they receive, especially on health issues, can pose a very great risk. Therefore, one should avoid resorting to Dr. Google and Nurse Wikipedia. Hoaxes in social networks can cost us our lives”, concludes Carlos Maciá-Barber.
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