Politics of Disinformation. Группа авторов

affiliations, the co-authorships generated, the approaches addressed, and the methodologies employed in these investigations.

      Results

      Bibliometric Analysis

A quantitative analysis of the keywords introduced in searches for articles in WoS made it possible to observe the conceptual preferences of the researchers. Terminologically, “fake news” headed the ranking as the most used keyword (199 articles), as shown in Figure 1.1, followed by “misinformation” (189), “disinformation” (111), “post-truth” (105), “fact check” (79), “hybrid media system” (35), “misleading information” (11), “false news” (10), “verification process” (4), “manipulated news” (2), “information disorder” (1), “fact checking platform” (1), and “false content” (1). A cross analysis by area also revealed some interesting contrasts, such as that the word “misinformation” is more frequently used in Psychology and Political Sciences, while “fake news” and “fact check” are more usual in Communication.

      Figure 1.1 Evolution of the use of “disinformation,” “fake news,” “misinformation,” “fact check,” and “post-truth” in articles indexed in WoS (1980–2020a).

A longitudinal study of the use of these concepts in the academic literature evinces the growing interest in this area of investigation, especially from 2016 onwards, when “post-truth” was chosen as word of the year (Wang 2016) due to the notoriety it had achieved during the Brexit referendum and the US presidential election (Jankowski 2018), which resulted in the appearance of numerous publications from 2017 onwards (Table 1.1). Although mentions in the academic record dating back four decades have been localized, these studies were carried out sporadically. Proof of this is that up until 2012 one or two articles at the most appeared each year, which contrasts with the 179 new publications registered in 2019 alone, accounting for one third of the sample. The COVID-19 crisis has significantly influenced the level of production, continuously accelerating the various phases involved in publication, which is why it is foreseeable that at the end of 2020 the number of articles and publications registered will be higher than that achieved the previous year.

Table 1.1 Annual production indexed in WoS

Year	Matches	%		Year	Matches	%		Year	Matches	%
2020^a	151	28.2		2011	4	0.6		2002	2	0.4
2019	179	33.4		2010	4	0.7		2000	2	0.4
2018	97	18.1		2009	1	0.2		1999	1	0.2
2017	30	5.6		2008	2	0.4		1998	1	0.2
2016	13	2.4		2007	1	0.2		1997	1	0.2
2015	16	3.0		2006	2	0.4		1996	1	0.2
2014	9	1.7		2005	3	0.6		1992	1	0.2
2013	9	1.7		2005	3	0.6		1992	1	0.2
2013	9	1.7		2005	3	0.6		1992	1	0.2
2012	3	0.6		2003	1	0.2		1980	1	0.2
^aFrom January to August 2020.

With respect to searching by concepts to determine their longevity, analysis of the texts indexed in WoS confirms that in 1980 the first article appeared that included the word “fact-check” in its title. It was published in the professional journal Columbia Journalism Review (Ridder 1980) and described and compared the work developed by fact-checkers in US newsrooms. In 1983 a newspaper chronicle by Robert Kaplan tackled disinformation in Greece in pioneering fashion in that same journal, and in