IDMO (Italian Digital Media Observatory) requested to IPSOS to investigate with a survey the Italian citizen attitude towards information. This research showed that Italians’ trust in the media is influenced by how much content is disseminated through social media. A goal that Luiss Data Lab, which coordinates IDMO operations, pursues in collaboration with MediaFutures, a transnational European data innovation hub that brings together startups, SMEs and artists in the media value chain to expand on standard models and comes up with unconventional ways for people to engage with quality journalism, science education and democratic processes. It aims to create products, services, digital artworks and experiences that will reshape the media value chain through innovative, inclusive and participatory applications of data and user-generated content.
This research aims to understand how effective the attitudes and the opinions of Italy’s population are towards information. The study demonstrates throughout data analysis six important sections that report the concern of being able to detect whether the content on the internet is true or false. The analysis takes place from February 1st until February 4th 2022 and involves a sample of 1000 people in the range 18-64 years old. Italian society is represented by gender, age, education, geographical area, employment and residential space. Italian citizens attitude towards social media and information is here reported.
Cellphones and computers are widely spread. Tv, social media, websites, news apps and radio are the main sources where Italians learn weekly their general knowledge. There is a gap of nearly 20% between the first and the last source (88% tv and 69% radio). Older people have fewer digital devices than younger ones. The great majority in Italy (7 people out of 10) exclusively inform themselves through free sources. There is a minor will (1 out of 4) to pay to get reliable info from a trusted source. More a subject is educated more they will understand how important it is to double-check what he finds on the internet. Schooled people navigate through online debates, cultural activities, volunteering and political arguments.
“Fake news” is a widely spread term in the world. Whereas more than 60% of the people believes that those who circulate untruth are conscious of the fact that the information they are spreading is false but useful for economical ends (37%), the remaining 36% sustains that spreading unreliable content in the majority of cases has social ends (29%) and it is done with the belief of it being true. In schooled people on the other hand things change, 57% assumes that those who divulge fake news are not aware that the content is fake.
Nearly 90% of the people claims that Italy is characterized by disinformation and this is harmful and worrying. There is a wide deviation between the perception of being personally able to distinguish real facts from fake news (73%) and the consideration of how much a person in Italy is actually able to do it (35%). By applying the technique of debunking, a word known already by 37% of schooled adults, there is a way of protecting each other from falling into the hole of disinformation. 44% of the younger population follows at least a page against the spreading of fake news. Debunking is considered useful by 80% of Italians.
90% of the community checks at least once whether their online content is reliable. 60% considers that information is more trustworthy when shared by different sources and 55% when shared by a friend very active on social media. 80% knows that it is right to report false news and repost it on their platforms, this is bad because instead of stopping the circulation of the lie, it helps its trip to the universe of the internet. Only 30% holds that it is best to leave everything as it is and surprisingly this attitude is more effective in preventing the spreading.
Many are the lacking opinions in regards of the public debate. 30% of Italians thinks that drinking tap water is not healthy and that Italy is not the country with the highest percentage of recycling in Europe. 23% assumes that homoeopathic medicine is capable of curing, while 36% doesn’t answer. Only 13% doesn’t agree with Italy being the second European manufacturing country and 45% abstains. Nearly 40% feels that the theme of climate change divides the scientific community, data that goes down among the youngest (32%) and the most educated (35%).
Science is viewed positively by the country, but a wide and worrying share of Italians do not have a clear opinion towards facts of public debate related to areas in which fake news proliferate. 1 Italian out of 4 consider science more subjective than objective.
37% of the population abstained from answering whether or not they agreed with the “science is not democratic” statement. 36% agrees (among them, 48% claims that only those who provide scientific proof should be allowed to take part in debates). 27% disagrees (among them, 41% believes that everyone could bring scientific evidence, thus making science democratic).
77% of the people approves while watching Tv that a guest should be invited even if they have opinions that are far away from scientific data. Among this group, 40% argues that it is necessary to receive all the different points of view to build a personal opinion. 1 out of 2 people in the remaining 23% claims that doing this would give too much visibility to people spreading disinformation.
Overall, 63% believes that these guests are too frequent, if not excessive. Whereas, 37% judges that they are not frequent enough. For 1 Italian out of 2 the presence of the guests is exaggerated and for 1 Italian out of 5 is insufficient.
