Media and Information Literacy in a context of misinformation

Abstract

The deliberate, massive and systematic spread of disinformation on social media represents a major threat to democratic systems, especially in interconnected societies where the instantaneous and constant flow of data permeates all spheres of public and private life. Faced with this worrying phenomenon, efforts have been intensified by different national and international organizations whose priority action plan has been to promote the training of their citizens. However, malicious strategies focused on disinformation and narratives based on information disorders favor propagation dynamics that are much more virulent and intensive than those generated by state information literacy programs. In this sense, various investigations have highlighted the training deficiencies of users in the face of the phenomenon of our study: political narratives require a high level of literacy with constant updates and continuous changes. These speeches, indecipherable for a sector of the population, are blurred in the midst of other types of information (of questionable veracity, origin and intentionality) much more accessible, propagated by social networks.