About 60% of Flemish people often doubt whether the news they are shown is correct, shows a study carried out by VRT on the occasion of International Factcheck Day on Saturday 2 April (today).
When asked about the impact of disinformation on their daily lives, almost half of the 2,000 surveyed people (aged 12 and over) said that they see news items on the internet every day that they are not sure about.
Disinformation is the deliberate spreading of misleading or incorrect information, for example in the form of an online news article or Twitter message. The study, however, did not include a definition of the term in order not to influence the results, reports VRT.
"This growing distrust of traditional media is fuelled by the internet, among other things, but it also needs to be qualified," Karen Linten of the MediaWise knowledge centre told the news outlet. "Certainly since Covid-19, some people feel that their opinions are not being heard in the media, and that increases their suspicion."
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At the same time, however, many people have started following the news more often since the start of the pandemic, as a foothold in uncertain times, she said. "It is hard to say that trust has really dropped very much."
Still, nearly six in ten participants often doubt the authenticity of the news they see, and a similar percentage of people say that they have believed fake news before. Social media, in particular, are mentioned as a source of false stories.
Yet, people seem to be increasingly worried about the spread of false information via traditional media channels such as television, radio or newspapers. Nearly all participants say that they have been confronted with disinformation at some point.
Most of them look for ways to deal with it: by consulting other news sources, looking for fact checks or asking people around them whether they believe it. 80% of those questioned are concerned about the influence of false news on society, and three-quarters of respondents explicitly asked VRT to do more in the battle against disinformation.
Young people are especially vulnerable
Children, young people and those with little education seem to be especially vulnerable. Young people are big users of social media and claim they are often confronted with false news there. Some 40% of those aged between 18 and 34 even say they are in doubt so often that they consider not following the news anymore.
Many of the short-term educated indicate that they do not always know how to handle their doubts about news reports and are less inclined to seek out fact checks. Of all those questioned, 1 in 3 risks avoiding the news because they find it difficult to find out what is true and what is not.
A recent study by Arteveldehogeschool shows that while young people do know what fake news is, they often still fall for it. The researchers presented 1,139 young people between the ages of 12 and 26 with a number of stories that they had to identify as being fake or real. Only 2 out of 5 participants were able to correctly point out the difference.
"If you have doubts about the authenticity of a message, it is best not to share it on your social media. That way you avoid spreading false information yourself," added Linten.
