A study led by UPF has revealed that only 7% of Spanish Communication faculties address disinformation with specific subjects. That is one of the main conclusions of the FACCTMedia project, led by a group of researchers from the POLCOM-GRP research group from the Department of Communication at Pompeu Fabra University (UPF). The findings of the project, which lasted five years, were presented in a series of seminars on the challenges of fact-checking in the world of academia, education and the media, held on UPF’s Poblenou campus.

Disinformation, the central theme of the seminars organized as part of the FACCTMedia project, is one of the main threats for audiences affected by polarization and the complexity of the communication ecosystem, media fatigue and growing distrust in the press; something made abundantly clear with the news stories on current events such as the storm in Valencia, the US elections and the war in Gaza.

In this context, the FACCTMedia project, “Accountability instruments in the face of disinformation: Impact of fact-checking platforms as accountability tools and curricular proposal”, has, since 2020, explored developments in the media accountability instruments used to combat disinformation, particularly fact-checking platforms. The research, funded by the Ministry of Science, Innovation and Universities, has resulted in a series of findings and practical recommendations that address these challenges, firmly on the agenda of governments, media outlets, universities and wider society.

The project’s principal investigators are Ruth Rodríguez and Marcel Mauri, members of the POLCOM-GRP research group from the Department of Communication at UPF, which coordinates the project’s team. The project also included researchers from seven other universities: the Complutense universities, Carlos III and Nebrija (Madrid); Mondragon University (Gipuzkoa); the University of Santiago de Compostela; the University of Sevilla; and TU Dortmund University (Germany).

On the relevance of the FACCTMedia project’s seminars, Marcel Mauri explained that, “at a time in which many institutions are harbouring doubts about belonging to social media platforms such as X, precisely due to the use of disinformation as a common tool in such spaces, this seminar talks about the ethical challenges underpinning the use of artificial intelligence technology in creating truth-based journalistic content”.

In the same vein, Ruth Rodríguez added that, “in a context in which disinformation grabs headlines, taking into account the coverage afforded to tragedies such as the events in Valencia or the impact of platforms in the dissemination of intentionally false content, we feel there is a need to reflect on the role not only of the media, but of faculties of Communication as well”.

University students and faculty call for greater education on the use of fact-checking tools

One of the main objectives of FACCTMedia was to analyse the extent to which the Journalism faculties at Spanish universities specifically address disinformation. The research found that 36 of the 54 curricula in place at faculties of Journalism and Communication in Spain, i.e. 66% of all bachelor’s degrees, teach subjects that deal with accountability, disinformation and fact-checking. Nonetheless, in the vast majority of these 36 bachelor’s degrees, the topic is addressed broadly, and only 4 (7% of the 54 curricula taken into consideration) approach disinformation and fact-checking with specific subjects.

The FACCTMedia project also involved the organization of discussion groups, whose participants included Communication students from various Spanish faculties, 85% of whom claim to access news mainly through social media. It should be noted that close to thirty students took part in these discussion groups and that, to draw general conclusions on the most popular news sources among Spanish Communication students, the scope of the project must be expanded.

The students who participated in the discussion groups also expressed concern about the loss of journalistic rigour, the result of insufficient time to cross-check information and the dissemination of fake news by influencers not subject to regulation, among other reasons. Only 38% of these young people admit to taking a subject that addresses disinformation through fact-checking. Both the university students and faculty call for greater education on the use of fact-checking tools.

A teaching guide with fact-checking tools for future journalists and a curricular proposal to address the issue within Communication faculties

After bringing the situation to light, the research team developed a curricular proposal, as a teaching guide, entitled “Journalistic Fact-Checking in the Age of Disinformation", which lays out the theoretical basis of the concept of disinformation and provides information on the most vulnerable social groups, as well as the history of and methodology employed by the main domestic and international fact-checking platforms. It also provides for instruction on how to use specialized tools for verifying text (such as Factstrea), deep fakes (Eye Aspect Radio), social media messages (Bot Sentinel) and videos (inVID).

In addition to examining the curricular content on disinformation in Communication faculties, the study also analysed the ability of people over 60 to discern disinformation, in partnership with the Idiograma-UPF Chair. Overall, the findings from this section of the study confirm that this group has a well-developed capacity to identify truthful news content.

The FACCTMedia project’s closing seminars

The FACCTMedia project’s closing seminars, which took place on Monday 18 and Tuesday 19 November on UPF’s Poblenou campus, served to present the researchers’ findings and featured presentations by experts on disinformation and media verification and the ethical and technological challenges of fact-checking. Experts such as Cristina Pulido (UAB) and Constanza Hormazábal (UNIACC) took part in debates on the future of the discipline in university research, while journalists such as Irene Larraz (Newtral) and Pablo Hernández (Maldita) did the same with regards to university education and society’s media literacy, one of the pillars for fostering accountability. The event was also attended by specialists on the media impact of artificial intelligence, Carlos Baráibar (Catalunya Ràdio) and David Valenzuela (CNN).