Student Perceptions of Fake News: A Matter of Information Literacy Awareness

The problem of fake news has underscored the importance of stimulating critical thinking skills (i.e., information literacy) in the educational setting. Students should be trained in these competencies, which will be useful to them in their schooling, as well as in their later work and lives. The paper presents the findings of an exploratory survey of 185 third- and fourth-year upper secondary school students aged 16 to 18. The findings show students overestimate their critical skills and are overexposed to information flows from the old and new media that make fact-checking difficult. There is also strong demand for an approach that is both technological and humanistic towards educating about fake news.