Over the past few years, online mis- and disinformation have raised increasing concern among experts, academics, and policy makers about their potential detrimental effects on individuals and societies. Young people may be particularly vulnerable to these threats due to the high immersion of their lives in digital technologies and the at times very complex task of distinguishing between true and false information. In line with earlier research which suggests that digital skills may aid young people in building resilience against negative consequences of online risk experiences, the importance of stimulating the skills and knowledge that are relevant in judging the credibility of online information has been highlighted repeatedly.
The aim of this study was to gain more insight into young people’s abilities to recognise online mis- and disinformation and into the strategies they used to judge the credibility of this information. To this end, we set up a multi-method study in three countries, Belgium (more specifically, Flanders), the Czech Republic, and Finland. These countries were selected based on their different scores on the Media Literacy Index. While Finland is at the top of this index, Belgium scored average, and the Czech Republic was situated among the lower-scoring countries. In total, 257 young people between 12 and 15 years old participated in the study, which took place between Autumn 2021 and Spring 2022.
Misinformation is content that was not created with the intention of causing harm but is false.
Disinformation is content that was intentionally created to be false and cause harm.
The study was set up as follows: First, the participants were asked a number of general questions relating to their news use, digital skills, and news literacy. Next, they were presented 12 news messages spread over four shorter moments during two school days. Six of these news messages were true and based on real news stories, while the other six were false and fabricated by the research team. The participants were each time asked to take a look at the message, to indicate how credible they found the message, and why they made this judgement. Finally, the participants were invited to take part in a focus group discussion that allowed us to deepen the insights gathered from the quantitative data.
Here’s a summary of our findings in six points:
- Young people’s news use practices are in line with previous research on the topic. Social media are their main way of keeping up to date with current events, however, they are also trusted the least as sources of reliable and credible information.
- In line with the findings from the first wave of the ySKILLS longitudinal school survey, quite a large number of participants reported their technical and operational skills as well as their communication and interaction skills at a high level, while they perceived their information navigation and processing skills and their content creation and production skills to be the lowest.
- In general, the participants were quite good at spotting mis- and disinformation: messages that were false were on average perceived as not credible, while the true news messages were generally seen as credible.
- A small number of participants, however, seemed to be exceptionally critical of all the news messages they were shown, as they judged the true news articles to be not credible.
- From the focus groups, we conclude that the participants generally had a good awareness of the presence of mis- and disinformation on the internet, and of the importance of credibility evaluation skills to build resilience and to avoid being misled by mis- and disinformation. However, it seemed that their knowledge about significant credibility cues at times remained rather superficial, and their awareness regarding elements that were less on the surface and less straightforward, such as the undertone of the message, did not always emerge from their answers.
- Assuming that a critical engagement with online news requires comprehension of the logics of algorithm-based digital media platforms, in the focus groups we also asked questions about social media tracking, datafication, and commodification practices. According to our analyses, digital skills appear to be more technical than critical in this area: teenagers recognise the obvious connection between their digital footprint and the ads they see on social media, but meanwhile, they are less aware of algorithmic recommendations and personalisation for non-advertising content, particularly news.
These findings highlight the continued need to allocate resources to the stimulation of information navigation and processing skills and credibility evaluation skills, with a particular focus on more subtle and harder to recognise credibility elements such as the undertone of a message. As mis- and disinformation are increasingly better disguised as correct and reliable information, further developing the skills that aid in recognising these more subtle elements of a message that point towards a correct credibility evaluation has become crucial. At the same time, it is important to stress that, while continued and deepened efforts aimed at stimulating credibility evaluation skills among young people are crucial, these efforts should be approached with caution. While these initiatives should be sustained in order to further develop their digital skills, we should also be wary of potential adverse effects relating to increased scepticism about and distrust in mainstream news media.
More information
The full report can be downloaded here.
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