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Communication & Society
Number of Followers: 6

This is an Open Access Journal

Open Access journal
ISSN (Online) 2386-7876
Published by Universidad de Navarra

[17 journals]

Virality, only the tip of the iceberg: ways of spread and interaction
around COVID-19 misinformation in Twitter
- Authors: Guillermo Villar-Rodríguez, Mónica Souto-Rico, Alejandro Martín
  Pages: 239 - 256
  Abstract: Misinformation has long been a weapon that helps the political, social, and economic interests of different sectors. This became more evident with the transmission of false information in the COVID-19 pandemic, compromising citizens’ health by anti-vaccine recommendations, the denial of the coronavirus and false remedies. Online social networks are the breeding ground for falsehoods and conspiracy theories. Users can share viral misinformation or publish it on their own. This encourages a double analysis of this issue: the need to capture the deluge of false information as opposed to the real one and the study of users’ patterns to interact with that infodemic. As a response to this, our work combines the use of artificial intelligence and journalism through fact-checked false claims to provide an in-depth study of the number of retweets, likes, replies, quotes and repeated texts in posts stating or contradicting misinformation in Twitter. The large sample of tweets was collected and automatically analysed through Natural Language Processing (NLP) techniques, not to give all the attention only to the posts with a big impact but to all the messages contributing to the expansion of false information or its rejection regardless of their virality. This analysis revealed that the diffusion of tweets surrounding coronavirus-related misinformation is not only a domain of viral tweets, but also from posts without interactions, which represent most of the sample, and that there are no big differences between misinformation and its contradiction in general, except for the use of replies.
  PubDate: 2022-04-01
  DOI: 10.15581/003.35.2.239-256
The role of Wikipedia in the dissemination of new knowledge: Analysis of
the entry «desinformación» as a changeable concept
- Authors: Marta Pérez-Escolar, Paula Herrero-Diz
  Pages: 257 - 268
  Abstract: The main goal of Wikipedia’s founders, Jimmy Wales and Larry Sanger, was to create a collaborative encyclopaedia driven by the users of the internet who, on a nonprofit basis, would compile and share all human wisdom and knowledge. In times of crisis, such as the coronavirus pandemic, Wikipedia has emerged as a reference point for users around the world. In this vein, Wikipedia once again highlighted its cultural role in the production of available knowledge in the face of new knowledge. Therefore, the main objective of this study is to analyse the specific entry of desinformación –disinformation in English– in the Spanish version of Wikipedia, given the importance that this concept has acquired during the coronavirus crisis and given the need to disseminate a homogeneous definition of this term. For that purpose, we have applied the content analysis method to a textual case, that is, to the disinformation entry in Wikipedia. The main results show that the basic characteristics of the Spanish entry of desinformación on Wikipedia are not the suitable ones to inform users or readers of the real meaning of this concept. Furthermore, the content of the Wikipedia disinformation entry is incomplete, disjointed and of dubious reliability. Therefore, this research advocates the creation of a homogeneous definition that permeates the common imaginary and that is the result of a combination of experts’ opinions and the definitions proposed by institutions, governments, media and organizations.
  PubDate: 2022-04-01
  DOI: 10.15581/003.35.2.257-268
Political and structural elements influencing the credibility of news on
social networking sites
- Authors: Nieves Lagares-Díez, Paulo-Carlos López-López, María Pereira-López
  Pages: 269 - 283
  Abstract: During lockdown, as a consequence of the coronavirus crisis in 2020, the majority of Spanish people (70% of social media users) were exposed to a social media consumer space: news without journalistic filters, with a multitude of fake data and a systematic existence of misinformation that has had a close relationship with the perception of credibility. 1,000 surveys were conducted between March 30 and April 30, in Spain. This work describes the consumption patterns of political parties in social networking sites, describing the facts that determine to what extent Spanish people trust the news they receive. The amount of information consumed online, age and the party identification with Vox and Ciudadanos are the most relevant communicative, structural or political variables that explain the increase or decrease in the credibility of the information that Spaniards receive through these channels.
  PubDate: 2022-04-01
  DOI: 10.15581/003.35.2.269-283
Research on News Sharing. A Proposal of bibliometric analysis
- Authors: Raquel Quevedo-Redondo, Tamara Antona-Jimeno, Mireya Vicent-Ibáñez
  Pages: 285 - 298
  Abstract: This study seeks to establish whether news sharing in social media is a mature field of research by using bibliometrics as a tool. The Web of Science database was searched for articles that contained the term ‘news sharing’ in titles, keywords, and abstracts. A total of 133 articles was obtained, which enabled us to address the question of whether there are well-established journals and authors that cover the subject. The results show a certain ambiguity, which could explain why the chosen subject matter is often studied in fields outside of Communication Studies; however, while studies on news sharing are conducted by researchers from heterogeneous fields, this has not translated into greater interdisciplinarity.
  PubDate: 2022-04-01
  DOI: 10.15581/003.35.2.285-298
The difficulties in spreading housing rights discourse in the face of
‘right now’ pragmatism on Twitter
- Authors: Ezequiel Ramon-Pinat
  Pages: 299 - 311
  Abstract: Social movements work in various overlapping dynamics: in the short term, trying to mobilize the largest number of sympathizers in their actions and in the long term, in a battle to change meanings and cognitive frameworks in a society. This article investigates how the Platform for Those Affected by Mortgages (PAH) uses Twitter in the two spheres above mentioned. The literature referring to collective mobilization explains activism in two complementary logics. A first one, rational, where participants only think about a concrete benefit, and a second, focusing on challenging established beliefs. As complex societies, the media and, more recently, social networks have gained in importance as a space where the legitimacy of these claims are discussed. In this analysis, frame theory has been applied to tweets referring to evictions published at the official account @LA_PAH. Twitter, unlike other social networks, allows quick mobilization to gather activists and stop evictions, a valuable and positive asset. However, it ends up giving a limited image, focused on avoiding evictions, instead of a message to establish housing access as a good that must be guaranteed, outside the market. The extreme cases, those about families including children and elderly, predominate in the posts. This visibility certainly generates empathy but leads to the false feeling that only the most vulnerable citizens are affected.
  PubDate: 2022-04-01
  DOI: 10.15581/003.35.2.299-311

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