Fake News: Offensive or Defensive Weapon in Information Warfare

Iuliu Moldovan, Norbert Dezso, Daniela Edith Ceană and Toader Septimiu Voidăzan ()
Additional contact information
Iuliu Moldovan: Department of Public Health and Health Management, G. E. Palade University of Medicine, Pharmacy, Science, and Technology of Târgu Mureș, 540141 Târgu Mureș, Romania
Norbert Dezso: Department of Epidemiology, G. E. Palade University of Medicine, Pharmacy, Science, and Technology of Târgu Mureș, 540141 Târgu Mureș, Romania
Daniela Edith Ceană: Department of Public Health and Health Management, G. E. Palade University of Medicine, Pharmacy, Science, and Technology of Târgu Mureș, 540141 Târgu Mureș, Romania
Toader Septimiu Voidăzan: Department of Epidemiology, G. E. Palade University of Medicine, Pharmacy, Science, and Technology of Târgu Mureș, 540141 Târgu Mureș, Romania

Social Sciences, 2025, vol. 14, issue 8, 1-13

Abstract: Background and Objectives: Rumors, disinformation, and fake news are problems of contemporary society. We live in a world where the truth no longer holds much importance, and the line that divides the truth from lies, between real news and disinformation, becomes increasingly blurred and difficult to identify. The purpose of this study is to describe this concept, to draw attention to one of the “pandemics” of the 21st-century world, and to find methods by which we can defend ourselves against them. Materials and methods. A cross-sectional study was conducted based on a sample of 442 respondents. Results. For 77.8% of the people surveyed, the concept of “fake news” is important in Romania. Regarding trust in the mass media, a clear dominance (72.4%) was observed among participants who have little trust in the mass media. Although 98.2% of participants detect false information found on the internet, 78.5% are occasionally deceived by the information provided. Of the participants, 47.3% acknowledged their vulnerability to disinformation. The main source of disinformation is the internet, as 59% of the interviewed subjects believed. As the best measure against disinformation, the study group was divided almost equally according to the three possible answers, all of which were considered to be equally important: imposing legal restrictions and blocking the posting of certain news (35.4%), imposing stricter measures for authors (33.9%), and increasing vigilance among people (30.5%). Conclusions. According to the statistics based on the participants’ responses, the main purposes of disinformation are propaganda, manipulation, distracting attention from the truth, making money, and misleading the population. It can be observed that the main intention of disinformation, in the perception of the study participants, is manipulation.

Keywords: fake news; disinformation; infodemic; questionnaire (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: A B N P Y80 Z00 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2025
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/2076-0760/14/8/476/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/2076-0760/14/8/476/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jscscx:v:14:y:2025:i:8:p:476-:d:1713694

Access Statistics for this article

Social Sciences is currently edited by Ms. Yvonne Chu

More articles in Social Sciences from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().