Editorial / Fact checking and critical thinking to fight false news: digital literacy as a communication and educational challenge

Abstract

The Information Society is facing a new context in which many citizens have gone from being mere recipients to becoming "prosumers", i.e. consumers of information who, at the same time, participate in its production. Democratised access to the Internet, the creation of social networks and, in short, the arrival of this new Digital Age have made it easier for anyone to create information that reaches all layers of society through the viralisation of content. In this change of traditional paradigms, Society is facing disinformation for two reasons: on the one hand, because it is faced with an over-exposure of information where it becomes complicated to distinguish between the interesting and the banal; and, secondly, because of the dissemination of false information at a frenetic speed. However, citizens are beginning to be aware, at least, of the existence of so-called fake news, hoaxes or false information. We rarely find responsible citizens who warn of the lack of rigour of a false news during their real or virtual conversations (in Whatsapp groups, for example). Therefore, in the absence of responsible or informed environments, we could find ourselves in a context where the Disinformation Society prevails.