ABSTRACT

Considerable interest has recently emerged among communication scholars around what has been called the ‘information disorder’, that is, a constellation of media genres that includes disinformation, misinformation, fake news, propaganda and hyperpartisan news. The rise in this type of information pollution is related to a crisis of public communication where the public sphere in many countries has become divided and challenged by social and political tensions. On the other hand, the digital space emerges as a socio-technological environment configured around platforms that condition emotional expression through their affordances, favoring the appearance of affective publics. Taking the above into account, this paper offers a conceptual framework for understanding the role played by emotions in our present ‘information disorder’ and the societal risks that arise from it. It examines how fake news strategically relies on emotionally provocative content to induce outrage and other strong feelings among users, which are then viralized on platforms. The paper concludes by presenting some lines of action for minimizing those risks from the point of view of media literacy.

摘要

最近，传播学者对所谓的“信息障碍”产生了相当大的兴趣，即包括虚假信息、错误信息、假新闻、宣传和超党派新闻在内的一系列媒体类型。这种信息污染的上升与公共传播危机有关，许多国家的公共领域因社会和政治紧张局势而分裂和挑战。另一方面，数字空间作为一个围绕平台配置的社会技术环境而出现，这些平台通过它们的可供性来调节情感表达，有利于情感公众的出现。考虑到上述情况，本文提供了一个概念框架，用于理解情绪在我们目前的“信息障碍”中所起的作用以及由此产生的社会风险。它研究了假新闻如何战略性地依赖情绪挑衅的内容来引起用户的愤怒和其他强烈情绪，然后在平台上传播。本文最后提出了一些从媒体素养的角度将这些风险降至最低的行动方针。