News literacy and online news between Egyptian and Spanish youth: Fake news, hate speech and trust in the media

 Sally Samy-Tayie, Cairo (Egypt)

 Santiago Tejedor, Barcelona (Spain)

 Cristina Pulido, Barcelona (Spain)

https://doi.org/10.3916/C74-2023-06

Keywords

News literacy, news, disinformation, social media, youth, media consumption

Abstract

Exposure to harmful content, fake news, and hate speech, calls to question whether citizens are 'responsible' when it comes to their online news behavior. This exploratory study aims to positioning news literacy as a mediating factor toward fostering civic responsibility by investigating its role in enhancing youth's online news experience and preparing them against harmful content. News literacy is defined as a multi-structural construct with three main constituents: motivation, knowledge, and skills. The study's main goal is accomplished through delving into youth's online news experience, and assessing their level of news literacy through a mixed methods approach relying on focus group discussions as a qualitative method and survey as a quantitative method. The study is applied to a sample of youth from Egypt and a sample of youth from Spain, on whom comparative analysis is conducted. Findings reveal a positive correlation between news literacy and: the ability to identify fake news, the ability to identify hate speech, engagement with news, caring about the veracity of content before sharing, and motivation to seek news. Negative perceptions about professional news media's performance have been expressed by respondents from both countries, with the main justification being that news media are not fulfilling their role as should be.

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Fundref

The research has been carried out through funding obtained as a Consolidated Research Group Funded by the Agency for University and Research Grants of the Generalitat de Catalunya with file number 2017 SGR 1504.

Crossmark

Technical information

Received: 29-05-2022

Revised: 15-06-2022

Accepted: 13-07-2022

OnlineFirst: 30-10-2022

Publication date: 01-01-2023

Article revision time: 17 days | Average time revision issue 74: 40 days

Article acceptance time: 45 days | Average time of acceptance issue 74: 69 days

Preprint editing time: 172 days | Average editing time preprint issue 74: 194 days

Article editing time: 217 days | Average editing time issue 74: 239 days

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