Fake news and generation z journalists. Post-millennial solutions against disinformation
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Abstract
Disinformation has been one of the most analyzed issues in recent years in media studies. However, there is still a lack of research on young media professionals´ perceptions about this problem. They are considered to be essential in the adoption of future strategies to tackle fake news. This research intends to discover the hegemonic ideas of new journalists on this problem and how they perceive its possible solutions. A total of 45 in-depth interviews with Generation Z journalists (mean age: 24.14 years) were carried out, complemented with two focus groups and the application of a semantic differential scale, whose results were analyzed using both descriptive and inferential statistics. New journalists affirm the solution to the problem should be approached from a convergent technocentrism that combines technological determinism with a traditionalist perspective that resorts to the old values of journalism to combat the information disorders that proliferate today. Data journalism, which merges traditional journalistic practices with new technological tools, is perceived as a more effective solution than fact-checking and artificial intelligence, even though the latter two practices are considered as faster strategies to tackle disinformation. Likewise, new journalists highlight the need to develop digital, critical, and media literacy for citizens.
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