Madrid faced with Covid-19. The opinion of journalism students about media praxis

ABSTRACT

The Covid-19 pandemic has devastated all of Spain with Madrid as the epicenter of infections and deaths. Despite the general confinement of the population, news journalism continued as an essential service, carrying out its usual work. This new global paradigm has transformed the uses and customs of both emitters and receivers. For all these reasons, the main objective of this investigation is to know the opinion of "pandemic journalism" of a specific media group, with a prosumer profile and who has lived with the worst scenario of the disease the students of the Journalism Degree of Madrid universities. The method of analysis is based on an opinion poll, the results of which show how the consumption of information by this group has been almost exclusively centralized in digital media and social networks. In addition, the present study reveals that the respondents are critical of the veracity of the news and the existence of fake news and the problem of the overabundance of information about the pandemic is verified, which has already been conceptualized as an infodemic. Finally, there is a low level of student media literacy, as well as a lack of mechanisms to overcome the threats of journalism in the post-truth era.