Original scientific paper
https://doi.org/10.22572/mi.29.1.2
Media Discourse on Web Portals and Twitter – an Online Battleground for the Combat Between Media Literacy and Fake News?
Mirela Holy
orcid.org/0000-0003-1294-1978
; Sveučilište VERN', Zagreb, Hrvatska
Nikolina Borčić
orcid.org/0000-0003-3929-4758
; Sveučilište VERN', Zagreb, Hrvatska
Abstract
Mainstream media often simply download information posted on social media from unreliable sources without critical thinking and verifying the content. Nowadays, the accuracy of information in all types of media is less important than the number of clicks and views per media content. Due to the fact that there is a proven correlation between the level of media literacy and democratic development of a society, as well as the fact that the media have a great influence on the shaping of public opinion via media framing and agendas, this paper explores the awareness on media literacy of Twitter users in Croatia (primarily journalists) and their perception of their own consumption and dissemination of fake news across social networks and traditional mass media. Although Twitter is not popular in Croatia, it is intensively used by Croatian journalists, and tweets often serve as topics for media processing, which gives Twitter great importance in creating the Croatian media discourse. The research was conducted by encouraging a discussion and undertaking further content analysis of tweets regarding the role of media literacy in combating the impact of fake news, especially on social networks. This was followed by semi-structured in-depth interviews with six journalists who are active Twitter users and content analysis of articles on media literacy and fake news available on Croatian web portals. Triangulation was used in order to reduce the echo chamber effect on the results of the study. The research has shown that respondents, i.e. Twitter users in Croatia – including journalists – are not sufficiently informed about media literacy and its impact on combating fake news. It has also pinpointed their lack of awareness regarding their own consumption and dissemination of fake news across social networks and mass media. The objective of the research was to create a model for analyzing the interrelationship between media literacy and creating fake news from two perspectives: (1) evaluating self-perception of Twitter users via content analysis and in-depth interviews, and (2) analyzing media publications on the topic of media literacy and fake news, whose content reflects the perception of the media on these topics.
Keywords
media literacy; fake news; propaganda; cyber communication; Twitter
Hrčak ID:
304800
URI
Publication date:
19.6.2023.
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