On November 26, UNESCO published its new survey titled « Behind the Screens ». The goal: to study the practices and motivations of content creators on social media. « Digital content creators have gained a major role in the information ecosystem, engaging millions of people with cultural, social, or political news », says Audrey Azoulay, Director-General of UNESCO. A central presence in the lives of internet users, but this also reveals a big problem: 62%, or more than two-thirds of influencers do not verify the sources of information.ns that they share in their content.
Deux tiers des influenceurs ne vérifient pas leurs sources, révèle une étude de @UNESCO_frhttps://t.co/rBhN7iUZD0
— ONU Info (@ONUinfo) November 28, 2024
Relying on the popularity of an article or the publisher as a truth
500 influencers spread across 45 different countries helped conduct this survey alongside a research team from Bowling Green State University in the United States. So, while two-thirds of the influencers surveyed said they do not verify the information they share, 42% stated that the number of likes and shares an article has received is a marker of the information's truthfulness. Furthermore, 21% don't hesitate to reshare content if it was communicated to them by friends.
> they trust » and 19% say they relate to the « reputation » of the original information source. News media are only the third most frequently used source by content creators.
Training Programs in Place
The problem is that there are international standards and regulatory frameworks for digital communications, but more than the majority of content creators (59%) are unaware of them. As a result, they can become victims of illegal content online: 32.3% of content creators report being targeted by hate speech.
Training programs specifically designed for influencers exist, but only 56.4% of those surveyed are aware of them, and among those, 13.9% have participated. Yet, 73% of respondents express a desire to train. To try to address this issue,
UNESCO has teamed up with the Knight Center for Journalism in the Americas to create a four-week training program aimed at teaching content creators how to research information by cross-referencing sources, being transparent about the sources used to create their content, and identifying misinformation.
