Noticias falsas, bulos y trending topics. Anatomía y estrategias de la desinformación en el conflicto catalán

Abstract

The current media ecosystem has generated new forms of manipulation and disinformation, used in political issues of greater complexity, such as the independence referendum held in Catalonia on October 1, 2017. The objective of this research is to analyze the characteristics of the fake news and the most widespread hoaxes about this topic and make a cartography of the generative strategies of the 80 hashtags that became trending topics on Twitter during the crisis. By using documentary analysis, critical discourse analysis and virtual ethnography techniques (non-participant observation), we concluded that, unlike fake news, hoaxes were generated by applying more sophisticated and complicated strategies to detect, especially due to image manipulation and their decontextualized use. Counter-hashtag, subverted discourse and activism were the catalysts for the main trending topics.