Measuring the effectiveness of a WhatsApp course against disinformation for the Elderly in Spain

Abstract

According to the ‘1st Study on Disinformation in Spain 2022’, 95.8% of the population identifies disinformation as a social problem; 91% believe that it could endanger a fair democracy and even the stability of a country. There have been many initiatives designed to tackle the effects of disinformation on individuals and on society, with a special focus on younger generations, due to their significant vulnerability. Elderly people, generally more mature and with a built critical thinking, frequently lack knowledge or abilities to select and weigh all the information the Internet provides. This is especially relevant when that information arrives through second generation networks like WhatsApp. The “How to detect false information online?” course, launched in Spain in the spring of 2022, aimed to fight disinformation and was specially targeted to people of over 50 years of age. The project was developed by Poynter/MediaWise, Newtral and Universidad de Navarra, with the support of Meta. This research, developed by Universidad de Navarra for Poynter/MediaWise, with Meta’s support, assesses the effectiveness of such course when it comes to improving the digital skills of elderly users, taking diverse social, demographic and technologyknowledge elements into account.