The refugee crisis, Corona, Donald Trump’s lies, climate change and now Russia’s war of aggression in Ukraine – all issues that have highlighted how vulnerable societies are to disinformation and so-called fake news.
Recently, a representative survey by the international opinion research institute Ipsos for the US news site "Axios" has been irritating, showing how much the narrative of the "stolen election" has become established among Democrats in the USA. In the meantime, not only die-hard Trump supporters sense fraud by the other side in general. When asked specifically, "If your party doesn't gain control of Congress, how likely is it that you blame voter fraud?", a whopping 25 percent of Democrats responded that they would assume voter fraud. A frightening indication of how fundamentally skeptical about democratic institutions has become in the mainstream of American society.
But what are the reasons for this? Is the US particularly vulnerable to conspiracy narratives and disinformation? Are there perhaps countries that are particularly vulnerable – or, put positively, particularly resilient to fake news?
The Open Society Institute in Sofia, Bulgaria, is dealing with this question and has been publishing the Media Literacy Index at regular intervals since 2017. In short, it describes the potential of individual countries' societies to resist the negative effects of fake news and misinformation. The evaluation for 2022 is now available.
According to the index, Finland is the country with the highest level of media literacy. Followed by Norway and Denmark. Also at the forefront: Estonia, Sweden and Ireland. Germany is in 11th place, the USA is in 18th place. Albania (43rd), Bosnia-Herzegovina (44th), Kosovo (45th), North Macedonia (46th) and Georgia (47th) bring up the rear.
The ranking list is created using several indicators, which are divided into the areas of media freedom, general level of education, interpersonal trust in society and the use of new (digital) participation instruments and are weighted differently. The highest weighting is given to the degree of freedom of the press and general literacy.
Striking: In the ranking there is a clearly visible gradient from north to south and from west to east. According to this, countries in northern and western Europe have a higher potential for resistance to fake news because they have better education, freer media and greater trust between people.
Even if one is not completely convinced by the methodology and the somewhat woodcut-like indicators, the list at least provides indications of resilience against conspiracy narratives and disinformation. The Scandinavian countries must be doing something right, because they also ranked among the top places in previous years' evaluations.
Finland, for example, is a society where people have a lot of trust in government. According to an OECD report, 71 percent of the Finnish population trust their government, compared to the OECD average of just 41 percent. The leap of faith in Finland also extends to Parliament, the civil service and the media.
The education system also plays a key role in Finland, where media skills have been valued for a long time. For example, the curriculum was only adapted in 2016 to better identify fake information in social media as part of the US election campaign. In addition, Finland is affording a "national emergency care agency" that also looks at the issue of fake news. "The government is working with private companies and the media to build society's resilience to threats and prepare people for all kinds of disruptions," says Markus Kokko, Head of Communications at the European Center of Excellence for Countering Hybrid Threats. .
The regional disparity emerging in the study also worries the study's author, Martin Lessenski: "It is worrying that the societies most vulnerable to the impact of fake news are at the same time the least concerned about the spread and impact of disinformation ." For example, the countries of Eastern Europe are those where there is a high susceptibility to fake news, but at the same time the citizens are not concerned about the spread of such news. "This increases the risks related to disinformation in these countries, particularly related to the war in Ukraine, as part of the public is unaware of their vulnerability or simply ignores them."
The conclusion from the study is that misinformation is recognized more easily the higher the level of education is, and here in particular the media competence education for young people and adults alike. But improving it is a long and arduous journey. The authors therefore consider regulatory measures – i.e. bans – to be necessary in the short term. Combatting fake news, she concludes, will require a combination of public and citizen action for the foreseeable future.
Sources: BBC, Open Society Institute Sofia
