Academic study finds most Australian adults "do not have the ability to assess information sources and verify information online across websites and social media" & all age groups are affected.

 

ONLINE MISINFORMATION IN AUSTRALIA: ADULTS’ EXPERIENCES, ABILITIES, AND RESPONSES

3 December 2024

Authors

Sora Park, Tanya Notley, T. J. Thomson, Aimee Hourigan, Michael Dezuanni

Publisher

News and Media Research Centre, University of Western Sydney

Executive Summary [excerpt]

The flourishing of Australian society relies on well-informed citizens who benefit from ready access to reliable sources of information to support their decision making. Democratic processes and social participation that are underpinned by high-quality and trustworthy news and information lead to better outcomes for Australian society. Likewise, accessing reliable and trustworthy information enables citizens to make informed decisions about everything from voting, to making purchases, to staying safe online, to accessing health advice and services.

The rapid uptake of social media, which Australians now use more than any other type of media, presents many opportunities for accessing information, but also brings into focus the significant challenge of misinformation. The sheer volume of information online and the speed at which new information travels can be overwhelming and very difficult to navigate. As a result, bad actors seek to undermine democratic processes and target individuals by spreading false and misleading information. This has been widely recognised as a global problem.

The World Economic Forum’s 2024 Global Risks report¹ finds that mis- and disinformation² pose the greatest immediate risk societies face and may “radically disrupt electoral processes over the next two years”.³ In 2021, the UN General Assembly passed a resolution affirming that “media and information literacy” can help ensure “that the fight against disinformation and misinformation promotes and does not infringe on individuals’ freedom of expression and access to information.” To achieve this, the resolution called on Member States to “develop and implement policies, action plans and strategies related to the promotion of media and information literacy” while also calling on social media platforms to “promote media and information literacy, as a way to empower all people and facilitate digital inclusion and global connectivity, and to assist in the fight against disinformation and misinformation.”⁴

However, unlike many advanced democracies,⁵ Australia does not have a national media literacy policy or strategy to ensure citizens are provided with support to help them to verify information online and to ensure they are supported to create and share trustworthy information.

In our 2024 national survey,⁶ only 42% of adult Australians said they are confident that they can check if information online is true and only 39% are confident they can check if a website can be trusted. While these attitudes are useful to capture, self-reporting about technology abilities can be inaccurate.⁷ Prior to this research very little was known about adult Australians’ actual ability or their everyday encounters with and responses to misinformation online. To address these knowledge gaps, we conducted four studies.

1. We surveyed 3,852 adults to

understand their media practices,

attitudes and confidence in their

abilities.

2. We tested the ability of 2,115

of these adults to assess the

credibility of information on

websites and social media

platforms.

3. We supported 55 of these

adults to collect data about their

experiences with (un)trustworthy

online news and information over

one week as part of a mobile

diary study.

4. We interviewed 20 of these

participants to explore how

sociocultural dynamics influence

people’s information seeking and

decision-making behaviours.

Our analysis of these four interlinked datasets finds that the vast majority of adult Australians want to be able to identify misinformation and are trying to do so. However, most adults do not have the ability to assess information sources and verify information online across websites and social media.

1 See https://www.weforum.org/publications/global-risks-report-2024/

2 In this report we use ‘misinformation’ as an overarching term that includes both dis- and misinformation.

3 See https://www3.weforum.org/docs/WEF_The_Global_Risks_Report_2024.pdf

4 161 GA Res 75/267, UN Doc A/RES/75/267 (29 March 2021)

5 Examples include Finland’s National Media Education Strategy (2013, 2019); the UK’s OfCom Online media literacy strategy (2021, 2024); and Netherland’s Netwerk

Mediawijksheid Multi-Year Plan (2019–2023).

6 Notley, T., Chambers, S., Park, S. & Dezuanni, M. (2024). Adult Media Literacy in 2024: Australian Attitudes, Experiences and Needs. Western Sydney University, Queensland University of Technology and University of Canberra. https://apo.org.au/node/327239

7 Siddiq et al. 2016, Taking a future perspective by learning from the past, Educational Research Review, 19(1).

SNAPSHOT FROM INFOGRAPHIC, p.10

Full report can be read & downloaded at

https://apo.org.au/sites/default/files/resource-files/2024-12/apo-nid328959.pdf

* my yellow highlighting used in this excerpt