Desinformación climática internacional: Rasgos, difusión y fact-checking

Autores/as

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.62008/ixc/16/02Desinf

Palabras clave:

desinformación, cambio climático, verificación, redes sociales, negacionismo

Resumen

Se explora, a través de un análisis de contenido, los rasgos y la arquitectura de la desinformación climática difundida a nivel europeo y registrada en EuroClimateCheck durante el segundo semestre de 2024. La muestra (n=248) comprende información falsa sobre el clima verificada por plataformas de fact-checking de 24 países. Se aprecia un flujo constante de desinformación, con una especial concentración en países como España (15,3%), Francia (13,7%) o Rumanía (11,7%). Atendiendo a la anatomía de los mensajes, priman los engaños (62,1%) y los contenidos sin fuente identificada (64,1%), mientras que las teorías de la conspiración (22,6%) constituye el principal tema de la narrativa desinformativa. Asimismo, resulta habitual el empleo de elementos audiovisuales para apuntalar la verosimilitud del relato. Se evidencia la naturaleza transnacional, persistente y cambiante de la desinformación climática y subraya la necesidad de fortalecer las estrategias de verificación.

Citas

Alinejad, D. & Honari A. (2024). Online politicizations of science: Contestation versus denialism at the convergence between COVID-19 and climate science on Twitter. Public Understanding of Science, 33(4), 396–413. https://doi.org/10.1177/09636625231216054

Alonso, L. & Tirado, A. (2025). Countering false information in emergency situations. Spanish fact-checkers on X during the October 2024 DANA. Estudios sobre el Mensaje Periodístico, 31(3), 627–637. https://doi.org/10.5209/emp.102818

Arnot, G., Pitt, H., McCarthy, S., Cordedda, C., Marko, S. & Thomas, S. (2024). Australian youth perspectives on the role of social media in climate action. Australian and New Zealand Journal of Public Health, 48(1). http://doi.org/10.1016/j.anzjph.2023.100111

Blanco-Alfonso, I., Chaparro-Domínguez, M. & Repiso, R. (2021). Fact-checking as a global strategy to fight against disinformation. Estudios sobre el Mensaje Periodístico, 27(3), 779-791. https://doi.org/10.5209/esmp.76189

Brady, W., Jackson, J., Lindström, B. & Crockett, M. (2023). Algorithm-mediated social learning in online social networks. Trends in Cognitive Sciences, 27(10), 947-960. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tics.2023.06.00

Casero-Ripollés, A., Alonso-Muñoz, L. & Moret-Soler, D. (2025). Spreading false content in political campaigns: Disinformation in the 2024 European Parliament Elections. Media and Communication, 13, 9525. https://doi.org/10.17645/mac.9525

Coan, T., Boussalis, C., Cook, J. & Nanko, M. O. (2021). Computer-assisted classification of contrarian claims about climate change. Scientific Reports, 11(1), 22320. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-021-01714-4

Denniss, E. & Lindberg, R. (2025). Social media and the spread of misinformation: infectious and a threat to public health. Health Promotion International, 40, daaf023. https://doi.org/10.1093/heapro/daaf023

European Commission (2025). Climate change. https://tinyurl.com/4kbm5cn9

Faragó, L., Kende, A. & Krekó, P. (2020). We only Believe in News That We Doctored Ourselves: The Connection between Partisanship and Political Fake News. Social Psychology, 51(2), 77–90. https://doi.org/10.1027/1864-9335/a000391

Farrell, J. (2019). The growth of climate change misinformation in US philanthropy. Environmental Research Letters, 14, 034013. https://doi.org/10.1088/1748-9326/aaf939

Fernández-Castrillo, C. & Magallón-Rosa, R. (2023). Specialized journalism in the fase of climate obstructionism. Revista Mediterránea de Comunicación, 14(2), 35–52. https://doi.org/10.14198/MEDCOM.24101

Finneman, T. & Thomas, R. (2018). A family of falsehoods: Deception, media hoaxes and fake news. Newspaper Research Journal, 39(3), 350-361. https://doi.org/10.1177/0739532918796228

Franta, B. (2021). Early oil industry disinformation on global warming. Environmental Politics, 30(4), 663–668. https://doi.org/10.1080/09644016.2020.1863703

Freiling, I., Krause, N., Scheufele, D. & Brossard, D. (2023). Believing and sharing misinformation, fact-checks, and accurate information on social media. New Media & Society, 25(1), 141-162. https://doi.org/10.1177/14614448211011451

Gallardo, J., Presol, Á. & Rubio, M. (2024). Environmental news in Spanish media verified by the International Fact-Checking Network. Historia y Comunicación Social, 29(1), 5–16. https://doi.org/10.5209/HICS.93310

García-Marín, D., Rubio-Jordán, A. & Salvat-Martinrey, G. (2023). Checking the fact-checker. Political verification practices and partisan biases in Newtral (Spain). Revista de Comunicación, 22(2). https://doi.org/10.26441/RC22.2-2023-3184

Glenza, J. (2019, January 23). Revealed: the free-market groups helping the tobacco industry. The Guardian. https://tinyurl.com/2arw9ak3

Hameleers, M. & Van der Meer, T. (2020). Misinformation and polarization in a high-choice media environment: How effective are political fact-checkers? Communication Research, 47(2), 227–250. https://doi.org/10.1177/0093650218819671

Hassan, I., Musa, R., Azmi, M., Abdulolah, M. & Yusoff, S. (2024). Analysis of climate change disinformation across types, agents and media platforms. Information Development, 40(3), 504–516. https://doi.org/10.1177/02666669221148693

Herrero-Diz, P., Pérez-Escolar, M. & Varona, D. (2022). Fact-checking skills: a proposal for Communication studies. Revista de Comunicación, 21(1), 231-249. https://tinyurl.com/nu73f3h8

Hoai-Lan, D. & Minh-Tung, T. (2024). Exploring fake news awareness and trust in the age of social media among university student TikTok users. Cogent Social Sciences, 10(1), 2302216. https://doi.org/10.1080/23311886.2024.2302216

Holder F., Mirza S., Lee, N., Carbone, J. & McKee, R. (2023). Climate obstruction and Facebook advertising: how a sample of climate obstruction organizations use social media to disseminate discourses of delay. Climatic Change, 176, 16. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10584-023-03494-46

Kloss, S. & Louit, J. (2024). The fake news during the chilean social outbreak and the role of fact checking against disinformation. Comuni@acción: Revista de Investigación en Comunicación y Desarrollo, 15(1), 18-29. https://doi.org/10.33595/2226-1478.15.1.1031

Koch, T., Frischlich, L. & Lermer, E. (2023). Effects of fact-checking warning labels and social endorsement cues on climate change fake news credibility and engagement on social media. Journal of Applied Social Psychology, 53(6). https://doi.org/10.1111/jasp.12959

Kyriakidou, M., Cushion, S., Hughes, C. & Morani, M. (2023). Questioning fact-checking in the fight against disinformation. Journalism Practice, 17(10), 2123-2139. https://doi.org/10.1080/17512786.2022.2097118

Lewandowsky, S. (2021). Climate change disinformation and how to combat it. Annual Review of Public Health, 42, 1–21. https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev-publhealth-090419-102409

López, A. & Llorca, G. (2025). Disinformation during the 2024 DANA crisis in Spain. Analysis, characteristics, typologies and denials. Revista Mediterránea de Comunicación, 16(2), e29303. https://doi.org/10.14198/MEDCOM.29303

López-Martín, Á., Gómez-Calderón, B. & Córdoba-Cabús, A. (2021). Misinformation and fact-checking. The case of fake news about vaccination against Covid-19 in Spain. RISTI, E45, 431-443. https://tinyurl.com/869eepzf

López-Martín, Á. & Córdoba-Cabús, A. (2024). Disinformation about the Israel-Hamas war: Analysis of hoaxes identified by Spanish fact-checking platforms. Estudios sobre el Mensaje Periodístico, 30(2), 311-322. https://doi.org/10.5209/esmp.95088

Malquín-Robles, A. & Gamir-Ríos, J. (2023). Disinformation and digital sexism. Feminism and its agenda as an object of hoaxes in Spanish. Icono14, 21(1). https://doi.org/10.7195/ri14.v21i1.1963

Martín-Sosa, S. (2021). Methodological notes for the study of climate denialism in the print media. Comunicación & Métodos, 3(1), 56–66. https://doi.org/10.35951/v3i1.111

Mcnair, B. (2018). Fake news: Falsehood, fabrication and fantasy in journalism. Routledge Focus.

Melchior, C. & Oliveira, M. (2024). A systematic literature review of the motivations to share fake news on social media platforms and how to fight them. New Media & Society, 26(2). https://doi.org/10.1177/14614448231174224

Nadal, L. (2024). From denial to the culture wars: A study of climate misinformation on YouTube. Environmental Communication, 18(8), 1186–1203. https://doi.org/10.1080/17524032.2024.2363861

Nanjundaswamy-Vasist, P., Chatterjee, D. & Krishnan, S. (2023). The Polarizing Impact of Political Dis¬information and Hate Speech. Information Sys¬tems Frontiers. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10796-023-10390-w

Palau-Sampio, D., Crisóstomo-Flores, P. & Picó-Garcés, M. J. (2024). Fuelling climate change disinformation: Global narratives distorting environmental risks in North America, Europe and Latin America. Catalan Journal of Communication & Cultural Studies, 16, 217-236. https://doi.org/10.1386/cjcs_00110_1

Primig, F. (2024). The Influence of Media Trust and Normative Role Expectations on the Credibili¬ty of Fact Checkers. Journalism Practice, 18(5), 1137-1157. https://doi.org/10.1080/17512786.2022.2080102

Ruiz-Incertis, R., Sánchez-del-Vas, R. & Tuñón-Navarro, J. (2024). Comparative análisis on the disinformation regarding the death of queen Elizabeth II in Europe. Revista de Comunicación, 23(1), 507-534. https://doi.org/10.26441/RC23.1-2024-3426

Sádaba, C., Salaverría, R. & Bringué-Sala, X. (2023). How to teach the elderly to detect disinformation: a training experiment with WhatsApp. Profesional de la Información, 32(5), e320504. https://doi.org/10.3145/epi.2023.sep.04

Salaverria, R., Buslón, N., López-Pan, F., León, B., López-Goñi, I. & Erviti, M. C. (2020). Disinformation in times of pandemic: typology of hoaxes on Covid-19. Profesional de la Información, 29(3), e290315. https://doi.org/10.3145/epi.2020.may.15

Sendra-Duro, E. (2025). Fact-checking and disinformation in Spain related to the climate issue. Doxa Comunicación, 41, 561–587. https://doi.org/10.31921/doxacom.n41a2861

Soo, N., Morani, M., Kyriakidou, M. & Cushion, S. (2023) Reflecting party agendas, challenging claims: An analysis of editorial judgements and factchecking journalism during the 2019 UK general election campaign. Journalism Studies, 24(4), 460-478. https://doi.org/10.1080/1461670X.2023.2169190

Soon, C. & Goh. S. (2018). Fake news, false information and more: countering human biases. Institute of Policy Studies. IPS Working Papers, 31. https://tinyurl.com/yezvc8z6

Strudwicke, I. & Grant, W. (2020). #Junkscience: investigating pseudoscience disinformation in the Russian Internet Research Agency tweets. Public Understanding of Science, 29(5), 459–472. https://doi.org/10.1177/0963662520935071

Supran, G. & Oreskes, N. (2017). Assessing Exxonmobil’s climate change communications (1977–2014). Environmental Research Letters, 12(8), 084019. https://doi.org/10.1088/1748-9326/aa815f

Tandoc, E., Thomas, R. & Bishop, L. (2021). What is (fake) news? Analyzing news values (and more) in fake stories. Media and Communication, 9(1), 110-119. https://doi.org/10.17645/mac.v9i1.3331

Thapa-Magar, N., Thapa, B. & Li, Y. (2024). Climate change misinformation in the United States: An actor-network analysis. Journalism and Media, 5(2), 595-613. https://doi.org/10.3390/journalmedia5020040

Tomassi, A., Falegnami, A. & Romano, E. (2024). Mapping automatic social media information disorder. PLOS One, 19(5), e0303183. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0303183

Tomassi, A., Falegnami, A. & Romano, E. (2025). Disinformation in the digital age: climate change, media dynamics, and strategies for resilience. Publications, 13(2), 24. https://doi.org/10.3390/publications13020024

Torrico, D. V. & González, V. (2023). Climate denialism and disinformation on YouTube. Analysis of the denialist discourse among the most viewed videos in Spanish. Miguel Hernández Communication Journal, 14(1), 89-108. https://doi.org/10.21134/mhjournal.v14i.1812

Tuñón-Navarro, J. & Sánchez-del-Vas, R. (2022). Verification: squaring the circle against misinformation and fake news? AdComunica, (23), 75-95. http://doi.org/10.6035/adcomunica.6347

UNEP (2025). Emissions gap report 2025. https://tinyurl.com/ycxckzmx

Van-der-Linden, S., Albarracín, D., Fazio, L., Freelon, D., Roozenbeek, J., Swire-Thompson, B. & Van Bavel, J. (2025). Using psychological science to understand and fight health misinformation: An APA consensus statement. American Psychologist. https://doi.org/10.1037/amp0001598

Vasileiadou, K. (2025). Misinformation, disinformation, fake news: How do they spread and why do people fall for fake news? Envisioning the Future of Communication, 2(1), 239–254. https://doi.org/10.12681/efoc.7912

Wang, J., Zhai, Y. & Shahzad, F. (2025). Mapping the terrain of social media misinformation. Acta Psychologica, (252), 104691. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.actpsy.2025.104691

Publicado

2026-07-15

Cómo citar

López-Martín, Álvaro, Gómez-Calderón, B., & González-Cortés, M. E. (2026). Desinformación climática internacional: Rasgos, difusión y fact-checking. index.Comunicación, 16(2), 273–301. https://doi.org/10.62008/ixc/16/02Desinf