Gender differences in fake news perception and evaluation: a case study with second grade secondary school students

Abstract

The recent media interest in the topic of fake news shows that particular attention must be given to fact-checking process: each student must be educated in these skills that will be useful during his / her school curriculum and subsequently also in work and life contexts. These skills are not only technological but also “critical thinking” skills and they are made explicit above all as Information Literacy skills, that is, as the set of technical and methodological skills that enable students to know where and how to search for information online, to filter it effectively and above all, to evaluate them adequately (Head & Eisenberg, 2010). The article presents the results of an exploratory survey about their perceptions of fake news on 184 students of the third and fourth year of secondary school (16-18 years). In particular, the perceptions and the approach to the phenomenon of fake news by the girls of the boys are compared which, although presenting many similarities, differ in some fundamental aspects, such as the perception of their technological skills and the importance given to different characteristics of the source as well as their views on which institutions should deal with the problem.