Fake News in the Post-COVID-19 Era? The Health Disinformation Agenda in Spain

Carmen Costa-Sánchez (), Ángel Vizoso and Xosé López-García
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Carmen Costa-Sánchez: Grupo de Investigación Cultura e Comunicación Interactiva, Facultade de Ciencias da Comunicación, Universidade da Coruña, Campus de Elviña, 15701 A Coruña, Spain
Ángel Vizoso: Grupo de Investigación Novos Medios, Facultade de Ciencias da Comunicación, Universidade de Santiago de Compostela, Avenida de Castelao, 15782 Santiago de Compostela, Spain
Xosé López-García: Grupo de Investigación Novos Medios, Facultade de Ciencias da Comunicación, Universidade de Santiago de Compostela, Avenida de Castelao, 15782 Santiago de Compostela, Spain

Societies, 2023, vol. 13, issue 11, 1-13

Abstract: Three years after a pandemic that demonstrated the importance of reliable health information in a news agenda dominated by coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), we analyze the situation of health disinformation in Spain on the basis of the verifications carried out by its main fact-checking platforms. The results show that COVID-19 shared center stage with other topics in the health area. In addition, a unique agenda is evident in each situation in the study, indicating a fact-checking strategy that is differentiated according to the media outlet and type of specialization (generalist fact-checker or one specialized in health). Vaccination, nutrition, and disease treatment emerge as the most important thematic subfields. Most health hoaxes are manufactured, i.e., created from scratch, rather than being manipulated or reconfigured from real preexisting elements. The format of text and image together predominates, and new social networks (TikTok or Telegram) have appeared as platforms for the circulation of hoaxes. This indicates that providing necessary health literacy to society and giving health issues greater presence in current fact-checking agendas are strategies for combatting disinformation, which can have serious consequences, regardless of whether there is a public health crisis such as the one experienced recently.

Keywords: fact checking; COVID-19; health; crisis; agenda; disinformation; Spain (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: A13 A14 P P0 P1 P2 P3 P4 P5 Z1 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2023
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