The Effectiveness of an Educational Intervention on Countering Disinformation Moderated by Intellectual Humility
There is an ongoing debate among scholars on how to tackle disinformation. Media education initiatives to increase literacy are effective ways to counter disinformation. Hence, the European Commission (2022) published Guidelines for Teachers and Educators on Tackling Disinformation and Promoting Dig...
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| Language: | English |
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Cogitatio
2025-01-01
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| Series: | Media and Communication |
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| Online Access: | https://www.cogitatiopress.com/mediaandcommunication/article/view/9109 |
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| author | Eduard-Claudiu Gross Delia Cristina Balaban |
| author_facet | Eduard-Claudiu Gross Delia Cristina Balaban |
| author_sort | Eduard-Claudiu Gross |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | There is an ongoing debate among scholars on how to tackle disinformation. Media education initiatives to increase literacy are effective ways to counter disinformation. Hence, the European Commission (2022) published Guidelines for Teachers and Educators on Tackling Disinformation and Promoting Digital Literacy Through Education and Training. The present research looked at the role of social media literacy in increasing awareness of the role of social media in spreading disinformation. We developed an educational intervention based on the European Commission guidelines. We investigated its impact on perceived social media literacy, the intention to share fake news on social media, and general conspiracy beliefs. We conducted a within-subject (two times measurement: before the educational intervention and one week after) +1 experiment with N = 127 young adults (aged 18 to 23). After filling in an initial survey, the experimental group received a 15-minute educational intervention on the role of social media for disinformation dissemination in complex digital information environments. One week later, all participants completed the second survey to assess perceived social media literacy and general conspiracy beliefs. In both surveys, participants saw three Instagram posts from a fictitious media outlet to express potential intentions to share on social media. Among the three posts, two showed false information. Findings showed that educational intervention produces a significant increase in perceived social media literacy and a decrease in general conspiracy beliefs. Intellectual humility moderates the impact of educational intervention on algorithmic awareness. |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj-art-bfc27f67b013496aa9d83df8238fc28b |
| institution | Kabale University |
| issn | 2183-2439 |
| language | English |
| publishDate | 2025-01-01 |
| publisher | Cogitatio |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Media and Communication |
| spelling | doaj-art-bfc27f67b013496aa9d83df8238fc28b2025-01-23T09:21:16ZengCogitatioMedia and Communication2183-24392025-01-0113010.17645/mac.91093801The Effectiveness of an Educational Intervention on Countering Disinformation Moderated by Intellectual HumilityEduard-Claudiu Gross0Delia Cristina Balaban1Department of Social Work, Journalism, Public Relations, and Sociology, Lucian Blaga University Sibiu, RomaniaDepartment of Communication, Public Relations, and Advertising, Babeș-Bolyai University, RomaniaThere is an ongoing debate among scholars on how to tackle disinformation. Media education initiatives to increase literacy are effective ways to counter disinformation. Hence, the European Commission (2022) published Guidelines for Teachers and Educators on Tackling Disinformation and Promoting Digital Literacy Through Education and Training. The present research looked at the role of social media literacy in increasing awareness of the role of social media in spreading disinformation. We developed an educational intervention based on the European Commission guidelines. We investigated its impact on perceived social media literacy, the intention to share fake news on social media, and general conspiracy beliefs. We conducted a within-subject (two times measurement: before the educational intervention and one week after) +1 experiment with N = 127 young adults (aged 18 to 23). After filling in an initial survey, the experimental group received a 15-minute educational intervention on the role of social media for disinformation dissemination in complex digital information environments. One week later, all participants completed the second survey to assess perceived social media literacy and general conspiracy beliefs. In both surveys, participants saw three Instagram posts from a fictitious media outlet to express potential intentions to share on social media. Among the three posts, two showed false information. Findings showed that educational intervention produces a significant increase in perceived social media literacy and a decrease in general conspiracy beliefs. Intellectual humility moderates the impact of educational intervention on algorithmic awareness.https://www.cogitatiopress.com/mediaandcommunication/article/view/9109conspiraciesconspiracies beliefdigital literacyinstagramintellectual humilitysocial mediasocial media literacy |
| spellingShingle | Eduard-Claudiu Gross Delia Cristina Balaban The Effectiveness of an Educational Intervention on Countering Disinformation Moderated by Intellectual Humility Media and Communication conspiracies conspiracies belief digital literacy intellectual humility social media social media literacy |
| title | The Effectiveness of an Educational Intervention on Countering Disinformation Moderated by Intellectual Humility |
| title_full | The Effectiveness of an Educational Intervention on Countering Disinformation Moderated by Intellectual Humility |
| title_fullStr | The Effectiveness of an Educational Intervention on Countering Disinformation Moderated by Intellectual Humility |
| title_full_unstemmed | The Effectiveness of an Educational Intervention on Countering Disinformation Moderated by Intellectual Humility |
| title_short | The Effectiveness of an Educational Intervention on Countering Disinformation Moderated by Intellectual Humility |
| title_sort | effectiveness of an educational intervention on countering disinformation moderated by intellectual humility |
| topic | conspiracies conspiracies belief digital literacy intellectual humility social media social media literacy |
| url | https://www.cogitatiopress.com/mediaandcommunication/article/view/9109 |
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