Resumen

RUIZ INCERTIS, Raquel; SANCHEZ DEL VAS, Rocio  y  TUNON NAVARRO, Jorge. Comparative analysis on the disinformation regarding the death of queen Elizabeth II in Europe. Revista de Comunicación [online]. 2024, vol.23, n.1, pp.507-534.  Epub 10-Jun-2024. ISSN 1684-0933.  http://dx.doi.org/10.26441/rc23.1-2024-3426.

Disinformation is currently one of Europe’s greatest challenges. In the past years, the European continent in general and, more precisely, the European Union have been suffering from various disinformation campaigns: such as the one that led to Brexit; the parallel health and disinformation pandemic; or the hybrid propaganda strategy following the Russian invasion of Ukraine. In this context, the death of Queen Elizabeth II of England has also been marked by disinformation practices that went viral throughout Europe. Therefore, this research aims to delve into the nature of disinformation regarding the death of the Queen in the timeframe between 8 and 22 September 2022, focusing in three European countries, namely Spain, the United Kingdom and France. For that purpose, the study is based on a content analysis of 76 publications published by fact-checking organisation, as well as open-ended surveys with specialised agents on disinformation. Overall, results show that social networks were the main platform through which misinformative content was disseminated, with Twitter occupying the first position- whereas other previous studies have shown the primacy of Facebook as a source of disinformation. The hoaxes, which generally included images, mainly responded to the typology of misleading and fabricated content established by Wardle (2017). Likewise, the main subject matter of the viral hoaxes was conspiracy theories, focusing on Elizabeth II as the main protagonist. Moreover, the frequency of hoax dissemination was significantly higher during the first week after the death of the monarch and responded to a transnational trend in which the spread of disinformation was adapted to national contexts.

Palabras clave : disinformation; Europe; analysis; hoaxes; fake news; Elizabeth II; European Union; factchecking.

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