Perceptions of University Students in Communication about Disinformation: An Exploratory Analysis in Brazil, Colombia and Spain

Abstract

This exploratory research is framed in the context of information disorders and its main objective is to identify the perception of Communication students in Brazil, Colombia and Spain about disinformation, their information consumption practices and aspects of their university education on media literacy. In order to carry out this study, an online survey was conducted between May and July 2023 in 23 higher education centers in the three countries, answered by 231 students. The main findings indicate that university students are aware of what fake news are and most of them know how to identify disinformative content, despite the fact that the development of the necessary skills for a critical reading of the media and the fight against disinformation takes place transversally in different subjects according to the students' perception, which shows the absence of a specific subject on media literacy in the curricula of the Communication degrees in the institutions assessed in the three countries.