Profesional de la información

Ibero-American journalism in the face of scientific disinformation: Fact-checkers’ initiatives on the social network Instagram

Juan-Ignacio Martín-Neira, Magdalena Trillo-Domínguez, María-Dolores Olvera-Lobo — jue, 17 ago 2023 00:00:00 +0000

The fight against disinformation is one of the major battles that journalism has had to face in recent years, especially after the coronavirus pandemic. As a counterbalance, “fact-checker” news media –platforms that have an important role in verifying whether or not the content circulating is true and that have harnessed the benefits of social networks, in spite of the difficulties inherent in these applications, to disseminate reliable and fact-checked content– have emerged. This study aims to explore how 10 prominent fact-checking accounts in Ibero-America use the social network Instagram to debunk false information, focusing in particular on the field of science and health. Applying a content analysis method using a checklist with quantitative and qualitative indicators, a total corpus of 240 posts from the first half of 2022 was obtained. The results allow us to determine which type of hoax has been used most as well as whether Twitter, Facebook, and WhatsApp are used for its dissemination. It was observed that health topics are the ones that attract the greatest interest from fact-checker accounts when it comes to creating fact-checks, and they tend to use static images or slide mode as opposed to video. In addition, they tend to use formal language in their presentation. This study also reveals that there were no instances of interaction with followers. While fact-checker accounts extensively use Instagram owing to its visual capabilities, they do not necessarily take advantage of its graphic potential. In addition, it was concluded that coronavirus is still a relevant topic for fact-checker media outlets, which must constantly refute the hoaxes that are mostly spread through social networks.

Disinformation narratives in Spain: reach, impact and spreading patterns

Jaume Suau, David Puertas-Graell — mar, 05 sep 2023 00:00:00 +0000

We present data from a survey conducted in Spain (N = 1003) in March 2022. We analysed fact-checker activity to obtain daily information regarding disinformation content encountered in the three weeks before the survey was launched. The research team analysed the material found to identify content that was related or that belonged to similar narratives. The goal was to identify the key disinformation narratives that were spreading before the survey, rather than just isolated content, to test the reach and impact of disinformation narratives, as well as spreading patterns, through survey research. Results point towards the fact that disinformation narratives were spread among a majority of respondents, with TV and social media being the main media responsible for spreading them. In addition, those that received the narratives before were more likely to believe them, indicating the disinformation narratives’ potential high impact.

Crude, anonymous, partisan, sectoral and anti-elitist. Electoral disinformation in Spain (2019-2022)

David Lava-Santos, José Gamir-Ríos, Germán Llorca-Abad — sáb, 02 sep 2023 00:00:00 +0000

The aim of this research is to analyse the electoral misinformation circulating in the public space as a whole during campaign periods. The sample is made up of 481 rebuttals published by the verification media Maldita.es, Newtral, Efe Verifica and Verificat in relation to 409 pieces of misinformation during the six campaigns carried out in Spain during the political cycle that began in the general election in November 2019, which also includes the regional elections held in Galicia, the Basque Country, Catalonia, Madrid, Castilla y León, and Andalusia. The methodology consists of a content analysis of 13 variables articulated around five dimensions of study: scope of generation and/or dissemination, format, epistemological authority, prominence, theme, and discourse. The results show: (1) the predominance of the citizen space of social networks as a field for the generation and distribution of electoral misinformation; (2) the crude construction of misinformation, with a preponderance of text as a misinformation element accompanied by multimedia resources shared without alteration; (3) the pre-eminence of problematic materials disseminated anonymously and without citing sources and those actually distributed by the political class, especially the right wing; (4) the majority role of the political class, particularly the left, generally characterised in a negative manner, although the political class of the right receives a greater proportion of positive treatment; (5) the abundance of sectoral and ideological themes, with a prominent presence of attacking elites as the predominant populist discursive feature; and (6) the profusion of direct attacks on political rivals, especially related to ideological and management issues.

How to teach the elderly to detect disinformation: a training experiment with WhatsApp

Charo Sádaba, Ramón Salaverría, Xavier Bringué-Sala — jue, 17 ago 2023 00:00:00 +0000

According to recent studies, most of the Spanish population identifies disinformation as a social problem and believes that it could endanger democracy and the stability of the country. In this context, many institutions point out the need for media literacy campaigns and initiatives that alleviate the possible harmful social effects of the phenomenon, especially among vulnerable audiences. While children and young people are the continuous target of this type of action, few so far have targeted the elderly. This article analyzes the effectiveness of a training action to increase the ability to detect false news in this age group. A 10-day course was designed, and a sample of 1,029 individuals over 50 years of age residing in Spain who are smartphone users was selected. Participants were divided into an experimental group (n=498), who were invited to take the course, and a control group (n=531). An ex ante and ex post study was carried out to determine the effects of the course on their ability to detect false news. The results reveal that those who took the course were more successful in identifying the news as true or false than the members of the control group. The results confirm the opportunity and convenience of designing media literacy actions aimed at those over 50 years of age, a social group particularly exposed to disinformation.

Teachers in a world of information: Detecting false information

mar, 26 sep 2023 00:00:00 +0000

The media have advanced rapidly in recent years, bringing with them new challenges, such as the need to acquire adequate training to be successful in today’s global world. Since anyone can participate in public media communication, misinformation is an element that shapes today’s society. This article focuses on the extent to which Czech teachers believe fake news and conspiracy theories. We conducted an online survey with a total of 2,155 teachers from all regions of the Czech Republic. The teachers assessed a total of 34 statements divided into three thematic groups: statements related to the European Union, statements related to the Covid-19 disease pandemic and statements focusing on well-known historical, cultural and social phenomena. More than half (61.14%) of Czech teachers were able to correctly judge the truthfulness of statements. Nevertheless, 15.59% of Czech teachers admit that they are not able to assess the statements in a relevant way, and only 10.41% believed some of the fake news or conspiration theories.

Using video for fact-checking on Facebook. Analysis of the trend and reach of Ibero-American production (2016-2021)

Alberto Dafonte-Gómez, Oswaldo García-Crespo, Diana Ramahí-García — vie, 22 sep 2023 00:00:00 +0000

Social networks –and Facebook in particular– have become an important element of the information diet for millions of people around the world. By using them, the traditional media lose control of the distribution channel for their content, whose reach now depends, firstly, on the relevance criteria established by the networks themselves and, secondly, on the interactions generated by the audience with each publication. Very often research on journalism has tackled the issue of reach and how efficient fact-checkers are. To find answer to the sociodemographic features of their audiences or the characteristics of their posts are explored. However, factors such as the influence of the algorithms which choose the content users are shown on the social networks is not often dealt with. This article aims to contribute in both areas. Firstly, it offers a broad perspective on the publications of Ibero-American fact-checkers on Facebook between 2016 and 2021, focuses on the evolution of video production (n=9075) and on the views and engagement achieved by this format with respect to the rest, and relates them to changes in the News Feed algorithm. Secondly, it proposes a content analysis to identify formal and thematic elements in the most popular videos in the same period (n=414) and relates them to previous research. Our results show significant similarities in popular videos, but also changes in video production, a generalized decrease in the ratio of views and a drop in the interaction rate more accentuated than in all the publications of the period. Although the focus of this research does not allow us to make direct causal inferences, the trends identified coincide with the changes in the Facebook News Feed algorithm that were made public in those years.

Trust, disinformation, and digital media: Perceptions and expectations about news in a polarized environment

Javier Serrano-Puche, Natalia Rodríguez-Salcedo, Maria-Pilar Martínez-Costa — mar, 26 sep 2023 00:00:00 +0000

The transformation that the communicative environment has undergone in recent decades poses a challenge for the media in relation to their audiences, as trust is sensitive to social, economic, cultural, and technological changes. The aim of this research is to deepen the understanding of the reasons and factors that influence the loss of trust in the media by audiences who traditionally trusted news more (young people and adults aged 25-54), examining the relevance of disinformation and polarization in discrediting the media. Firstly, the state of the issue is reviewed from the theoretical point of view and the data provided, among others, such as the Digital News Report and several studies about the global loss of trust in other institutions, with special reference to the Edelman Trust Barometer. Secondly, the article adopts a qualitative methodology to investigate the motivations and expectations of citizens regarding the media. Specifically, three discussion groups were held in various Spanish cities. To ensure representativeness, sociodemographic diversity was considered, including gender, age, and educational level criteria, among others. Among the findings, it stands out that one of the main reasons for distrust towards the media is the perception that news is biased for political or economic reasons. The Covid-19 pandemic, which was rife with disinformation, has influenced attitudes towards the media and the way news is consumed. Once the pandemic was overcome, trust in the media decreased and participants sought alternative sources of information. However, some differences in perceptions and consumption habits are noted depending on age and educational level. Finally, the research indicates that distrust extends well beyond the media ecosystem, affecting all institutions.

Research on selective media exposure in Spain: a critical review of its findings, application phases, and blind spots

Lidia Valera-Ordaz — jue, 07 sep 2023 00:00:00 +0000

This paper is the first review of selective exposure studies in Spain, offering comprehensive insights into the diverse findings and analytical strategies employed over almost three decades by studies that explore the politically oriented media consumption of Spanish audiences. The article divides the evolution of this research line in Spain into two main phases –an initial phase (1995-2016) and a consolidation phase (2017-present)– according to the methodological approaches used during each period. Despite the challenges posed by working with secondary data and the lack of experimental designs, we note a robust initiation of this research line in Spain, accompanied by increasing methodological sophistication and diversification and a substantial accumulation of evidence on how Spanish audiences selectively consume like-minded news media. The paper also identifies the blind spots of selective exposure research in Spain, such as the scarcity of primary data sources, which overlooks phenomena such as online selective exposure and selective avoidance, the need to supplement multivariate analyses with other techniques that allow the direction of causal influence between variables to be established, and the significance of assessing the role of public media as facilitators or inhibitors of cross-cutting exposure.

Never mind predatory publishers… what about ‘grey’ publishers?

sáb, 09 sep 2023 00:00:00 +0000

The Harbingers project, which studied the working lives and scholarly communication behaviour of early career researchers (ECRs) over 6 years, found evidence of changing attitudes to questionable (grey) publishing. Thus, whilst predatory publishers have come to be treated with equanimity, as a problem easily dealt with, there was growing concern with the high volume of low-grade research being generated, some of which by ‘grey’ open access publishers for want of a better name (questionable and non-standard have also been used). With the recent announcement (2023) that the government of Malaysia (a Harbinger case country) is not providing Article Processing Charges (APCs) for articles published by MDPI, Frontiers and Hindawi on quality and cost grounds, we set out to see what lay behind this decision and whether other countries exhibited similar concerns. Information was obtained by asking Harbinger country leads, mostly embedded in research universities, from Australia, China, France, Israel, Malaysia, Poland, Spain, UK, and the US to conduct desk research to establish what is happening. It was found that countries, like ECRs, appear to have formed into two different camps, with China, Poland, France, and Spain joining Malaysia in the camp of those who felt concerned about these publishers and the UK, US, Israel, and Australia belonging to the camp of the unconcerned. Explanations for the split are furnished and whether the Malaysian position will prevail elsewhere is considered. Finally, in this paper, we have aired issues/concerns, rather than provided robust, systematic data. For a systematic study we shall have to wait for the fuller study we are hoping to conduct.

Gender stereotypes in AI-generated images

Francisco-José García-Ull, Mónica Melero-Lázaro — jue, 24 ago 2023 00:00:00 +0000

This study explores workplace gender bias in images generated by DALL-E 2, an application for synthesising images based on artificial intelligence (AI). To do this, we used a stratified probability sampling method, dividing the sample into segments on the basis of 37 different professions or prompts, replicating the study by Farago, Eggum-Wilkens and Zhang (2020) on gender stereotypes in the workplace. The study involves two coders who manually input different professions into the image generator. DALL-E 2 generated 9 images for each query, and a sample of 666 images was collected, with a confidence level of 99% and a margin of error of 5%. Each image was subsequently evaluated using a 3-point Likert scale: 1, not stereotypical; 2, moderately stereotypical; and 3, strongly stereotypical. Our study found that the images generated replicate gender stereotypes in the workplace. The findings presented indicate that 21.6% of AI-generated images depicting professionals exhibit full stereotypes of women, while 37.8% depict full stereotypes of men. While previous studies conducted with humans found that gender stereotypes in the workplace exist, our research shows that AI not only replicates this stereotyping, but reinforces and increases it. Consequently, while human research on gender bias indicates strong stereotyping in 35% of instances, AI exhibits strong stereotyping in 59.4% of cases. The results of this study emphasise the need for a diverse and inclusive AI development community to serve as the basis for a fairer and less biased AI.

Who interacts with communicative AI and what attitudes are displayed toward it? Sociodemographic, personality, and futurephobia variables

Héctor Centeno-Martín, Samuel Toledano-Buendía, Alberto Ardèvol-Abreu — mié, 23 ago 2023 00:00:00 +0000

Communicative applications of artificial intelligence (AI) have burst into the lives of millions of people through products such as ChatGPT, Midjourney, or Replika, with the ability to generate texts and images and even understand natural language and socialize with humans. This study addresses attitudes toward communicative AI, as well as the sociodemographic and personality factors that are related to its positive perception and usage. For this purpose, we use data from a survey conducted at the end of February 2023 among adult residents in Spain (N = 821). Our results suggest that there is a slight predominance of negative attitudes toward communicative AI, which include cognitive and affective elements such as the perception of dehumanizing aspects and job-related threats, caution, or fear. However, a relevant portion of our respondents is not familiar with communicative AI or generalizes their answers toward other applications of AI. Individuals with higher educational level, greater openness to experience, and lower level of futurephobia show more positive attitudes toward these technologies. In terms of adoption, men, younger people, and those with more favorable attitudes toward AI are more likely to decide to use it, while those scoring higher in agreeableness tend to use it less frequently once they have decided to use it. We discuss these results under the premise that early adopters may play a central role in the attitudes of late majority and laggards, as well as in the future development of communicative AI and its regulatory framework.

Toward non-human-centered design: designing an academic article with ChatGPT

Tuba Livberber — mar, 26 sep 2023 00:00:00 +0000

Non-human-centered design tools, such as ChatGPT, have shown potential as effective aids in academic article design. This study conducts a comparative evaluation of ChatGPT-3.5 and ChatGPT-4, examining their capabilities and limitations in supporting the academic article design process. The study aims to demonstrate the utility of ChatGPT as a writing tool and investigate its applicability and efficacy in the context of academic paper design. The author interacted with both versions of ChatGPT, providing prompts and analyzing the generated responses. In addition, a different expert academic was consulted to assess the appropriateness of the ChatGPT responses. The findings suggest that ChatGPT, despite its limitations, could serve as a useful tool for academic writing, particularly in the design of academic articles. Despite the limitations of both GPT-3.5 and GPT-4, GPT-3.5 offers a broader perspective, whereas GPT-4 provides a more in-depth and detailed approach to the design of articles. ChatGPT exhibits capabilities in aiding the design process, generating ideas aligned with the overall purpose and focus of the paper, producing consistent and contextually relevant responses to various natural language inputs, partially assisting in literature reviews, supporting paper design in terms of both content and format, and providing reasonable editing and proofreading for articles. However, limitations were identified, including reduced critical thinking, potential for plagiarism, risk of misinformation, lack of originality and innovation, and limited access to literature.

Retraining fact-checkers: The emergence of ChatGPT in information verification

Roger Cuartielles, Xavier Ramon-Vegas, Carles Pont-Sorribes — jue, 28 sep 2023 00:00:00 +0000

The open launch of new artificial intelligence tools such as ChatGPT-3.5 (Generated Pre-trained Transformer) in November 2022 by the company OpenAI -and then its update to version GPT-4 in March 2023- poses new opportunities and challenges for journalism, and especially for professionals specifically focused on information verification. This research aims to understand and analyze the perceptions generated by the irruption of ChatGPT among fact-checking professionals in Spain with the aim of identifying disadvantages and advantages in its use, professional implications and desired functionalities. The study uses qualitative methodology with in-depth interviews with professionals from all Spanish fact-checking platforms belonging to the International Factchecking Network (IFCN) and the European Digital Media Observatory (EDMO). The results conclude that the use of ChatGPT presents notable ambivalences. On the one hand, there are perceived drawbacks in issues such as the transparency and reliability of sources, the scope of the data, and the format of the responses generated. However, fact-checkers also point to a possible auxiliary use of the chatbot in the tasks of gathering information, detecting falsehoods, and producing denials. The irruption of ChatGPT has a direct impact on the work routines of the fact-checkers, which can be made more difficult, reinforced or extended. Fact-checking professionals perceive themselves as “context agents” in a new ecosystem that also obliges them to further diversify their fields of action in the fight against disinformation and to accelerate the implementation of media education actions that empower citizens in the responsible use of artificial intelligence.

AI application in journalism: ChatGPT and the uses and risks of an emergent technology

Beatriz Gutiérrez-Caneda, Jorge Vázquez-Herrero, Xosé López-García — vie, 22 sep 2023 00:00:00 +0000

AI integration in media newsrooms is changing professional routines, required profiles and journalistic products. The acceleration in the development of this technology since the end of 2022 makes it necessary to review these tools in order to analyse their uses and risks, as well as their possible applications in the journalistic field. OpenAI launched ChatGPT in November 2022 open to the public. This tool has been a key element in this technological revolution. This paper analyses ChatGPT applications in journalistic newsrooms through its introduction during a working day in the routine of different professionals. A mixed methodology was used to carry out this experience: a benchmarking of AI tools applied to journalism was created, a walkthrough experience was carried out with ChatGPT and, based on the results obtained in these first two phases, the experiment with journalists was designed. A total of 12 journalists of different ages and sectors with little or no previous contact with technological tools based on artificial intelligence, as the aim of the study is to observe the application in newsrooms without the need for technical training, participated in this research. The results show the usefulness of the tool to automate mechanical processes, rewrite texts, analyse data and even serve as a content idea creator. On the other hand, journalists have also perceived significant risks such as inaccuracy of AI as well as lack of ‘empathy’.

ChatGPT could be the reviewer of your next scientific paper. Evidence on the limits of AI-assisted academic reviews

David Carabantes, José L. González-Geraldo, Gonzalo Jover — mar, 26 sep 2023 00:00:00 +0000

The irruption of artificial intelligence (AI) in all areas of our lives is a reality to which the university, as an institution of higher education, must respond prudently, but also with no hesitation. This paper discusses the potential that resources based on AI presents as potential reviewers of scientific articles in a hypothetical peer review of already published articles. Using different models (GPT-3.5 and GPT-4) and platforms (ChatPDF and Bing), we obtained three full reviews, both qualitative and quantitative, for each of the five articles examined, thus being able to delineate and contrast the results of all of them in terms of the human reviews that these same articles received at the time. The evidence found highlights the extent to which we can and should rely on generative language models to support our decisions as qualified experts in our field. Furthermore, the results also corroborate the hallucinations inherent in these models while pointing out one of their current major shortcomings: the context window limit. On the other hand, the study also points out the inherent benefits of a model that is in a clear expansion phase, providing a detailed view of the potential and limitations that these models offer as possible assistants to the review of scientific articles, a key process in the communication and dissemination of academic research.

Artificial intelligence applications in media archives

Virginia Bazán-Gil — mié, 27 sep 2023 00:00:00 +0000

The aim of this paper is to present an international overview of the use of artificial intelligence in the context of media archives in broadcasters, preservation institutions and press agencies, through a comprehensive analysis of sources primarily focusing on case studies presented at international conferences and seminars, together with the results of the survey on the use of artificial intelligence conducted by FIAT/IFTA. Once the most commonly used technologies have been defined and we have identified the stages of the production workflow in which they are used, we will discuss the specific applications of these technologies in television archives, audiovisual heritage preservation organisations, press agencies and innovation projects where technology vendors and media companies collaborate. Finally, we will deal with the challenges related to the implementation of AI in media archives, the need for datasets in the development of language models, and the relevance of a sensible use of technology.