Desinformación en tiempos de pandemia: tipología de los bulos sobre la Covid-19 // Disinformation in times of pandemic: typology of hoaxes on Covid-19

Salaverría, Ramón, Buslón, Nataly, López-Pan, Fernando, León, Bienvenido, López-Goñi, Ignacio and Erviti, María-Carmen Desinformación en tiempos de pandemia: tipología de los bulos sobre la Covid-19 // Disinformation in times of pandemic: typology of hoaxes on Covid-19. Profesional de la información, 2020, vol. 29, n. 3. [Journal article (Unpaginated)]

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English abstract

Drawing upon the misinformation stories debunked by the three accredited fact-checking platforms in Spain, a content analysis of all the hoaxes (N = 292) bound to the Covid-19 pandemic is performed, over the first month of the state of alarm decreed by the Spanish Government (March 14th, 2020 – April 13th, 2020). The study shows that the hoaxes about the coronavirus were disseminated mainly on social networks and, among them, especially in closed ones, such as the WhatsApp mobile messaging application. It also detects the most frequent formal and content peculiarities of misinformation. The results reveal that the pandemic, in addition to generating a large number of hoaxes on health and science, also led to the dissemination of many political fake news. The formats, sources and territories of origin of the hoaxes are also explored. Beyond the empirical results, this study makes theoretical contributions in the framework of the emerging studies on information disorders. Specifically, it provides a definition of hoax, as well as a typology in which four main types are identified: joke, exaggeration, decontextualization and deception. Based on these four types, a ‘hoax severity diagram’ is proposed.

Spanish abstract

Se presenta un análisis de contenido de todos los bulos (N=292) relacionados con la pandemia Covid-19 identificados por las tres plataformas de verificación acreditadas en España, durante el primer mes del estado de alarma decretado por el Gobierno (14 marzo 2020 – 13 abril 2020). El estudio muestra que los bulos sobre el coronavirus fueron diseminados principalmente en las redes sociales y, entre ellas, sobre todo en las cerradas, como la aplicación móvil de mensajería WhatsApp. También detecta las particularidades formales y de contenido más frecuentes de los contenidos falsificados. Los resultados revelan que la pandemia, además de generar un gran número de bulos sobre salud y ciencia, casi un tercio de la muestra, también propició la difusión de numerosos contenidos falsos de tema político y gubernamental. El artículo explora los formatos, fuentes y territorios de procedencia de los bulos. Más allá de sus resultados empíricos, este estudio realiza contribuciones teóricas en el marco de los emergentes estudios sobre desórdenes informativos. En concreto, aporta una definición propia de bulo, así como una tipología en la que se identifican cuatro tipos de bulos: broma, exageración, descontextualización y engaño. A partir de esos cuatro tipos, se propone un ‘diagrama de gravedad de los bulos’.

Item type: Journal article (Unpaginated)
Keywords: Covid-19; Coronavirus; Pandemics; Infodemics; Fake news; Hoaxes; Misinformation; Disinformation; Fact-checking; Social media; Journalism; Digital journalism; Cyberjournalism; Spain; Covid-19; Coronavirus; Pandemias; Infodemias; Noticias falsas; Bulos; Desinformación; Verificación; Redes sociales; Periodismo; Ciberperiodismo; Periodismo digital; España.
Subjects: B. Information use and sociology of information > BJ. Communication
Depositing user: Tomàs Baiget
Date deposited: 10 Jul 2020 11:14
Last modified: 10 Jul 2020 11:14
URI: http://hdl.handle.net/10760/40134

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