The Perception of the Fake News Phenomenon on the Internet by Members of Generation Z

Studies from last year conducted by the Reuters Institute and Eurobarometer indicate that most Europeans are often confronted with fake news and disinformation in the media, mostly on the Internet. Members of Generation Z (born in the mid-90s to 2010) are a younger demographic group which, by the end of 2020, will make a third of the world's population. In the near future, members of Generation Z will be an influential group of young citizens whose habits, in the context of media consumption and the perception of the phenomenon of fake news and misinformation, will become very respectable. The aim of this study is to examine how members of Generation Z consume and evaluate the information they receive through various media, including the Internet, their attitudes toward misinformation and fake news and to determine to what extent their attitudes differ in comparison with older citizens. The survey was conducted in 2019 on the sample of 152 students from the University of Zagreb. Attitudes were found to differ between the members of Generation Z and older generations.