Author(s): Mohamed Ben Moussa, Ahmed Farouk Radwan, Bouzian Zaid
This paper examines resilience to misinformation among young people in the UAE during Covid-19 pandemic. It subscribes to a constructivist interpretation of resilience as a complex and dynamic process involving individual and societal factors that allows people to overcome adversity resulting from information disorder. In doing so, the paper explores the complex role of the digital news literacy and other demographic variables affecting youth’s attitudes towards infodemics in the context of a “paternalistic” state such as the UAE. The paper adopts a mixed method approach, using both surveys and focus groups, in order to increase the reliability of results. A survey was administered first (N=425) to examine general trends and attitudes towards misinformation and infodemics and was followed by focus groups to further probe some key findings of the survey, and to better understand the role of users’ agency and personal attitudes in shaping resilience to misinformation. Results did not show a strong correlation between trust in news sources and perception of and attitude towards covid-19 misinformation. They also indicate that age group, nationality, and educational background can play an important role in determining youth’s resilience against misinformation. The results also confirm that while the macro variable of trust is important, it does not on its own determine the level of resilience against misinformation among youth. The paper highlights the complex process of resilience among youth that is equally shaped by structural and societal conditions as by individual agency and level of exposure to critical thinking.