The European university in the fight against disinformation: an analysis of initiatives developed by a sample of higher education institutions ( La universidad europea en la lucha contra la desinformación: un análisis de las iniciativas desarrolladas por una muestra de instituciones de educación superior )

Abstract

This paper studies the role of European universities in the fight against disinformation, to observe the extent to which they meet the criteria established by the European Union (EU) in this area. To this end, content analysis is carried out on a sample of initiatives related to disinformation in 140 higher education institutions in Italy, the Republic of North Macedonia, Serbia, Slovakia, Albania and Spain (countries participating in the European project ‘FakeSpotting’). For this purpose, a qualitative analysis tool was set up to systematize the exploratory study of the aforementioned initiatives and to report the conclusions on the treatment of the problem, as well as the degree of participation. Among the main results, it is concluded that approximately 40% of the institutions analysed act on the phenomenon, but that there is a notable disparity between countries. With respect to the actions, an assessment of the nature, thematic focus and level of agreement with the EU to address the phenomenon of disinformation is presented.