{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2026,3,20]],"date-time":"2026-03-20T01:09:21Z","timestamp":1773968961902,"version":"3.50.1"},"reference-count":56,"publisher":"MDPI AG","issue":"3","license":[{"start":{"date-parts":[[2021,8,11]],"date-time":"2021-08-11T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1628640000000},"content-version":"vor","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by\/4.0\/"}],"funder":[{"DOI":"10.13039\/100014440","name":"Ministerio de Ciencia, Innovaci\u00f3n y Universidades","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","award":["FPU18\/01455"],"award-info":[{"award-number":["FPU18\/01455"]}],"id":[{"id":"10.13039\/100014440","id-type":"DOI","asserted-by":"publisher"}]},{"DOI":"10.13039\/501100011100","name":"Fundaci\u00f3n Espa\u00f1ola para la Ciencia y la Tecnolog\u00eda","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","award":["FCT-18-13437"],"award-info":[{"award-number":["FCT-18-13437"]}],"id":[{"id":"10.13039\/501100011100","id-type":"DOI","asserted-by":"publisher"}]}],"content-domain":{"domain":[],"crossmark-restriction":false},"short-container-title":["Publications"],"abstract":"<jats:p>Although the phenomenon of disinformation and, specifically, fake news has become especially serious and problematic, this phenomenon has not been widely addressed in academia from the perspective of consumers, who play a relevant role in the spread of this content. For that reason, the present study focuses on determining how this phenomenon is perceived by citizens, as the strategies to counteract fake news are affected by such opinions. Thus, the main objective of this study was to identify in which media the perception and experience of fake news is greatest and thus determine what platforms should be focused on to counteract this phenomenon. A survey was conducted in October 2020, among the Spanish adult population and was completed by a total of 423 people (with 421 valid answers). Among its main findings, this study determined that social media platforms are the type of media in which the greatest amount of fake news is perceived, which confirms the suggestions of previous studies. Furthermore, the experienced presence of fake news seems to be primarily affected by age and gender, as there was a higher level of skepticism observed among young people and women. Additionally, the use of media seems to be positively correlated with the perceived and experienced presence of fake news.<\/jats:p>","DOI":"10.3390\/publications9030035","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2021,8,11]],"date-time":"2021-08-11T21:48:12Z","timestamp":1628718492000},"page":"35","update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.3390\/mdpi_crossmark_policy","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":16,"title":["Citizen Perceptions of Fake News in Spain: Socioeconomic, Demographic, and Ideological Differences"],"prefix":"10.3390","volume":"9","author":[{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0002-7414-2998","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"David","family":"Blanco-Herrero","sequence":"first","affiliation":[{"name":"Facultad de Ciencias Sociales, Campus Unamuno, University of Salamanca, 37007 Salamanca, Spain"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0001-7856-5392","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Javier J.","family":"Amores","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Facultad de Ciencias Sociales, Campus Unamuno, University of Salamanca, 37007 Salamanca, Spain"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0002-6253-7087","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Patricia","family":"S\u00e1nchez-Holgado","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Facultad de Ciencias Sociales, Campus Unamuno, University of Salamanca, 37007 Salamanca, Spain"}]}],"member":"1968","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2021,8,11]]},"reference":[{"key":"ref_1","unstructured":"(2021, June 14). Fake News Reinforces Trust in Mainstream News. Available online: https:\/\/www.kantarmedia.com\/us\/newsroom\/press-releases\/fake-news-reinforces-trust-in-mainstream-news."},{"key":"ref_2","unstructured":"European Commission (2018). Flash Eurobarometer 464: Fake News and Disinformation Online, Directorate-General for Communication."},{"key":"ref_3","unstructured":"IPSOS (2018). Fake News, Filter Bubbles, Post-Truth and Trust, IPSOS."},{"key":"ref_4","first-page":"137","article-title":"Defining \u201cfake news:\u201d A typology of scholarly definitions","volume":"6","author":"Tandoc","year":"2017","journal-title":"Digit. J."},{"key":"ref_5","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"1865","DOI":"10.1037\/xge0000465","article-title":"Prior exposure increases perceived accuracy of fake news","volume":"147","author":"Pennycook","year":"2018","journal-title":"J. Exp. Psychol. Gen."},{"key":"ref_6","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"39","DOI":"10.1016\/j.cognition.2018.06.011","article-title":"Lazy, not biased: Susceptibility to partisan fake news is better explained by lack of reasoning than by motivated reasoning","volume":"188","author":"Pennycook","year":"2018","journal-title":"Cognition"},{"key":"ref_7","first-page":"783","article-title":"Who Shared It?: Deciding What News to Trust on Social Media","volume":"7","author":"Sterrett","year":"2019","journal-title":"Digit. J."},{"key":"ref_8","first-page":"179","article-title":"Conspiracy theories, credibility and trust in information","volume":"32","author":"Gualda","year":"2019","journal-title":"Commun. Soc."},{"key":"ref_9","first-page":"e280308","article-title":"Deontolog\u00eda y noticias falsas: Estudio de las percepciones de periodistas espa\u00f1oles","volume":"28","year":"2019","journal-title":"Prof. Inf."},{"key":"ref_10","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"de Vicente Dom\u00ednguez, A.M., Beriain Ba\u00f1ares, A., and Sierra S\u00e1nchez, J. (2021). Young Spanish Adults and Disinformation: Do they identify and spread fake news and are they literate in it?. Publications, 9.","DOI":"10.3390\/publications9010002"},{"key":"ref_11","first-page":"e290527","article-title":"Percepciones sobre medios de comunicaci\u00f3n y desinformaci\u00f3n: Ideolog\u00eda y polarizaci\u00f3n en el sistema medi\u00e1tico espa\u00f1ol","volume":"29","author":"Masip","year":"2020","journal-title":"Prof. Inf."},{"key":"ref_12","first-page":"95","article-title":"Procedimiento para verificar y desmontar informaciones falsas basadas en el discurso de odio. El caso de Maldita Migraci\u00f3n","volume":"6","year":"2019","journal-title":"Rev. Asoc. Espa\u00f1ola Investig. Comun."},{"key":"ref_13","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"V\u00e1zquez-Herrero, J., Vizoso, \u00c1., and L\u00f3pez-Garc\u00eda, X. (2019). Innovaci\u00f3n tecnol\u00f3gica y comunicativa para combatir la desinformaci\u00f3n: 135 experiences para un cambio de rumbo. Prof. Inf., 28.","DOI":"10.3145\/epi.2019.may.01"},{"key":"ref_14","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"L\u00f3pez-Olano, C., and Fenoll, V. (2019). Posverdad o la narraci\u00f3n del proc\u00e9s catal\u00e1n desde el exterior: BC, DW y RT. Prof. Inf., 28.","DOI":"10.3145\/epi.2019.may.18"},{"key":"ref_15","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Aparici, R., Garc\u00eda-Mar\u00edn, D., and Rinc\u00f3n-Manzano, L. (2019). Noticias falsas, bulos y trending topics. Anatonm\u00eda y estrategias de la desinformaci\u00f3n en el conflicto catal\u00e1n. Prof. Inf., 28.","DOI":"10.3145\/epi.2019.may.13"},{"key":"ref_16","first-page":"359","article-title":"Las fake news durante el Estado de Alarma por COVID-19. An\u00e1lisis desde el punto de vista pol\u00edtico en la prensa espa\u00f1ola","volume":"78","year":"2020","journal-title":"Rev. Lat. Comun. Soc."},{"key":"ref_17","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Montesi, M. (2020). Understanding fake news during the Covid-19 health crisis from the perspective of information behaviour: The case of Spain. J. Librariansh. Inf. Sci.","DOI":"10.1177\/0961000620949653"},{"key":"ref_18","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Salaverr\u00eda, R., Busl\u00f3n, N., L\u00f3pez-Pan, F., Le\u00f3n, B., L\u00f3pez-Go\u00f1i, I., and Erviti, M.-C. (2020). Desinformaci\u00f3n en tiempos de pandemia: Tipolog\u00eda de los bulos sobre la Covid-19. Prof. Inf., 29.","DOI":"10.3145\/epi.2020.may.15"},{"key":"ref_19","unstructured":"Wardle, C., and Derakhshan, H. (2017). Information Disorder. Toward an Interdisciplinary Framework for Research and Policymaking, Council of Europe."},{"key":"ref_20","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"122","DOI":"10.1177\/0267323118760317","article-title":"The Disinformation Order: Disruptive Communication and the Decline of Democratic Institutions","volume":"33","author":"Bennett","year":"2018","journal-title":"Eur. J. Commun."},{"key":"ref_21","first-page":"245","article-title":"Actores Europeos y Desinformaci\u00f3n: La disputa entre el factchecking, las agendas alternativas y la geopol\u00edtica","volume":"18","author":"Oleart","year":"2019","journal-title":"Rev. Comun."},{"key":"ref_22","unstructured":"Posetti, J., and Matthews, A. (2018). Una Breve Gu\u00eda de la Historia de las \u2018Noticias Falsas\u2019 y la Desinformaci\u00f3n, ICFJ. Available online: https:\/\/www.icfj.org\/sites\/default\/files\/2019-06\/HistoryPropaganda_Espanol2_final_5.pdf."},{"key":"ref_23","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Figueira, J., and Santos, S. (2019). Percepci\u00f3n de las noticias falsas en universitarios de Portugal: An\u00e1lisis de su consumo y actitudes. Prof. Inf., 28.","DOI":"10.3145\/epi.2019.may.15"},{"key":"ref_24","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"129","DOI":"10.1080\/17470216008416717","article-title":"On the Failure to Eliminate Hypotheses in a Conceptual Task","volume":"12","author":"Wason","year":"1960","journal-title":"Q. J. Exp. Psychol."},{"key":"ref_25","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"292","DOI":"10.3758\/s13421-013-0358-x","article-title":"Do people keep believing because they want to? Preexisting attitudes and the continued influence of misinformation","volume":"42","author":"Ecker","year":"2014","journal-title":"Mem. Cogn."},{"key":"ref_26","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"554","DOI":"10.1073\/pnas.1517441113","article-title":"The spreading of misinformation online","volume":"113","author":"Bessi","year":"2016","journal-title":"Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA"},{"key":"ref_27","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"2028","DOI":"10.1177\/1461444817712086","article-title":"The agenda-setting power of fake news: A bid data analysis of the online landscape from 2014\u20132016","volume":"20","author":"Vargo","year":"2018","journal-title":"New Media Soc."},{"key":"ref_28","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"4787","DOI":"10.1038\/s41467-018-06930-7","article-title":"The spread of low-credibility content by social bots","volume":"9","author":"Shao","year":"2018","journal-title":"Nat. Commun."},{"key":"ref_29","unstructured":"Pariser, E. (2011). The Filter Bubble: How the New Personalized Web Is Changing What We Read and How We Think, Penguin Books."},{"key":"ref_30","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Moragas-Fern\u00e1ndez, C.M., Grau-Masot, J.-M., and Capdevila-G\u00f3mez, A. (2019). Articulaci\u00f3n de la influencia en Twitter ante el anuncio de la Ley del refer\u00e9ndum en Catalu\u00f1a. Prof. Inf., 28.","DOI":"10.3145\/epi.2019.may.20"},{"key":"ref_31","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"McNair, B. (2017). Fake News: Falsehood, Fabrication and Fantasy in Journalism, Routledge.","DOI":"10.4324\/9781315142036"},{"key":"ref_32","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Allcott, H., Gentzkow, M., and Yu, C. (2019). Trends in the diffusion of misinformation on social media. Res. Politics, 6.","DOI":"10.3386\/w25500"},{"key":"ref_33","first-page":"154","article-title":"Fake news and the economy of emotions","volume":"6","author":"Bakir","year":"2018","journal-title":"Digit. J."},{"key":"ref_34","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"1798","DOI":"10.1080\/13683500.2020.1738357","article-title":"Deepfake: A social construction of technology perspective","volume":"24","author":"Kwok","year":"2020","journal-title":"Curr. Issues Tour."},{"key":"ref_35","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"39","DOI":"10.22215\/timreview\/1282","article-title":"The Emergence of Deepfake Technology: A review","volume":"9","author":"Westerlund","year":"2019","journal-title":"Technol. Innov. Manag. Rev."},{"key":"ref_36","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"1015","DOI":"10.1007\/s11227-020-03294-y","article-title":"DeepFakE: Improving fake news detection using tensor decomposition-based deep neural network","volume":"77","author":"Kaliyar","year":"2021","journal-title":"J. Supercomput"},{"key":"ref_37","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Tschiatschek, S., Singla, A., G\u00f3mez Rodr\u00edguez, M., Merchant, A., and Krause, A. (2018). Fake News Detection in Social Networks via Crowd Signals. WWW \u201918: Companion, Proceedings of the The Web Conference 2018, Lyon, France, 23\u201327 April 2018, ACM.","DOI":"10.1145\/3184558.3188722"},{"key":"ref_38","first-page":"127","article-title":"Plataformas de fact-checking en espa\u00f1ol. Caracter\u00edsticas, organizaci\u00f3n y m\u00e9todo","volume":"32","author":"Vizoso","year":"2019","journal-title":"Commun. Soc."},{"key":"ref_39","unstructured":"Nielsen, R., and Graves, L. (2017). \u2018News You Believe\u2019: Audience Perspectives on Fake News, Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism."},{"key":"ref_40","unstructured":"Aguaded, I., and Romero-Rodr\u00edguez, L.M. (2018). Desinformaci\u00f3n e infoxicaci\u00f3n en las cuartas pantallas. Competencia Medi\u00e1tica en Medios Digitales Emergentes, Comunicaci\u00f3n Social."},{"key":"ref_41","first-page":"70","article-title":"La precariedad te hace d\u00f3cil. Problemas que afectan a la profesi\u00f3n period\u00edstica","volume":"21","year":"2012","journal-title":"Prof. Inf."},{"key":"ref_42","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Blanco-Herrero, D., Oller Alonso, M., and Arcila Calder\u00f3n, C. (2020). Las condiciones laborales de los periodistas iberoamericanos. Diferencias temporales y geogr\u00e1ficas en Brasil, M\u00e9xico, Chile, Espa\u00f1a y Portugal. Comun. Soc.","DOI":"10.32870\/cys.v2020.7636"},{"key":"ref_43","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"211","DOI":"10.1257\/jep.31.2.211","article-title":"Social media and fake news in the 2016 election","volume":"31","author":"Allcott","year":"2017","journal-title":"J. Econ. Perspect."},{"key":"ref_44","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"1146","DOI":"10.1126\/science.aap9559","article-title":"The spread of true and false news online","volume":"359","author":"Vosoughi","year":"2018","journal-title":"Science"},{"key":"ref_45","unstructured":"Matthew, B., Dutt, R., Goyal, P., and Mukherjee, A. (2021, June 16). Spread of Hate Speech in Online Social Media. Available online: https:\/\/arxiv.org\/abs\/1812.01693."},{"key":"ref_46","unstructured":"(2021, June 16). This Analysis Shows How Viral Fake Election News Stories Outperformed Real News on Facebook. Available online: https:\/\/www.buzzfeed.com\/craigsilverman\/viral-fake-electionnews-outperformed-real-news-on-facebook."},{"key":"ref_47","unstructured":"Fake News Is Poisoning Brazilian Politics (2021, June 16). WhatsApp Can Stop It. Available online: https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2018\/10\/17\/opinion\/brazil-election-fake-news-whatsapp.html."},{"key":"ref_48","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Guess, A., Nagler, J., and Tucker, J. (2019). Less than you think: Prevalence and predictors of fake news dissemination on Facebook. Sci. Adv., 5.","DOI":"10.1126\/sciadv.aau4586"},{"key":"ref_49","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"3720","DOI":"10.1177\/1461444818758715","article-title":"The small, disloyal fake news audience: The role of audience availability in fake news consumption","volume":"20","author":"Nelson","year":"2018","journal-title":"New Media Soc."},{"key":"ref_50","unstructured":"FECYT (2021). Encuesta de Percepci\u00f3n Social de la Ciencia y la Tecnolog\u00eda\u20142020, FECYT."},{"key":"ref_51","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"El\u00edas, C. (2018). Fakenews, poder y periodismo en la era de la posverdad y \u2018hechos alternativos\u2019. \u00c1mbitos. Rev. Int. Comun., 40, Available online: https:\/\/institucionales.us.es\/ambitos\/fakenews-poder-y-periodismo-en-la-era-de-la-posverdad-y-hechos-alternativos\/.","DOI":"10.12795\/Ambitos.2018.i40.04"},{"key":"ref_52","first-page":"106","article-title":"Politics of Fake News: How WhatsApp Became a Potent Propaganda Tool in India","volume":"9","author":"Gowhar","year":"2017","journal-title":"Media Watch"},{"key":"ref_53","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Resende, G., Melo, P., Sousa, H., Messias, J., Vasconcelos, M., Almeida, J., and Benevenuto, F. (2019, January 13\u201317). (Mis)Information dissemination in WhatsApp: Gathering, analyzing and countermeasures. Proceedings of the WWW \u201919: The World Wide Web Conference, San Francisco, CA, USA.","DOI":"10.1145\/3308558.3313688"},{"key":"ref_54","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Herrero-Diz, P., Conde-Jim\u00e9nez, J., and Reyes de C\u00f3zar, S. (2020). Teens\u2019 Motivations to Spread Fake News on WhatsApp. Soc. Media Soc., 6.","DOI":"10.1177\/2056305120942879"},{"key":"ref_55","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Tucker, J.A., Guess, A., Barber\u00e1, P., Vaccari, C., Siegel, A., Sanovich, S., Stukal, D., and Nyhan, B. (2018). Social Media, Political Polarization, and Political Disinformation: A Review of the Scientific Literature, Hewlett Foundation.","DOI":"10.2139\/ssrn.3144139"},{"key":"ref_56","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"29","DOI":"10.1080\/15205436.2018.1511807","article-title":"Priming and Fake News: The Effects of Elite Discourse on Evaluations of News Media","volume":"22","author":"Collier","year":"2019","journal-title":"Mass Commun. Soc."}],"container-title":["Publications"],"original-title":[],"language":"en","link":[{"URL":"https:\/\/www.mdpi.com\/2304-6775\/9\/3\/35\/pdf","content-type":"unspecified","content-version":"vor","intended-application":"similarity-checking"}],"deposited":{"date-parts":[[2025,10,11]],"date-time":"2025-10-11T06:44:22Z","timestamp":1760165062000},"score":1,"resource":{"primary":{"URL":"https:\/\/www.mdpi.com\/2304-6775\/9\/3\/35"}},"subtitle":[],"short-title":[],"issued":{"date-parts":[[2021,8,11]]},"references-count":56,"journal-issue":{"issue":"3","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2021,9]]}},"alternative-id":["publications9030035"],"URL":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.3390\/publications9030035","relation":{},"ISSN":["2304-6775"],"issn-type":[{"value":"2304-6775","type":"electronic"}],"subject":[],"published":{"date-parts":[[2021,8,11]]}}}