The Journal KOME has just published my exploration together with Carlos Pérez of the evolution of citizens’ attitudes towards misinformation. We have found that European citizens’ resilience to misinformation increases in between 2018 and 2022 in 26 of 27 European countries. This resilience has ben conceptualized and measured in terms of citizens’ awareness of being exposed to misinformation, their “media literacy”, and the consideration of misinformation as a problem for the country and for democracy.
The five top countries where “resilience to misinformation” evolved higher were Czech Republic, The Netherlands, Estonia, Slovenia, and Luxemburg; the four bottom countries in which the evolution was smaller were Greece, Austria, Bulgaria, and France.
In the European context, European public policies have been enhancing media literacy strategies to engage citizens and, therefore, to equip active citizenship to curb misinformation. Our data show that European citizens believe they are better equipped to identify information that misrepresent the reality. Greater concern, awareness, or a better self-perception of skills to distinguish accurate from false information can help citizens become more resilient.
For full content of the article click here.
Pérez, C. R., & Canel, M. J. (2025) Perceptions of Self-Efficacy with Misinformation: Evolution towards Resilience Among European Citizens (2018–2022). KOME, 13(1). ht
