Digital Literacy against Fake News: Strategies and Gaps among University Students

ABSTRACT

The global crisis in the flow of information and communications due to COVID-19, infodemia, largely caused by social networks, has left a global concern about the impact of fake news on societies. The increase in the consumption of networks and the presence of the population in these spaces impose the need to know how to adequately address this social problem, which involves the management of digital identity and network consumption habits. In this sense, the study presented here, of an exploratory nature and with the philosophy of exploration-action, has the dual objective of exploring the perceptions, uses and consumption of digital identity, social networks, and fake news in order, secondly, to propose specific actions. The research is approached with a quantitative, descriptive, and correlational methodology in a sample of 248 master's and bachelor's degree students from 17 different autonomous communities. The results indicate a significant lack of knowledge despite the degree of use and consumption, revealing the need for specific actions that require specific digital literacy. In the conclusions, the training axes are provided as a proposal for innovative intervention to be taught in the university environment in a crosscutting manner.