Written by: Evangelical Focus
Article source: evangelicalfocus.com
The Nutes Institute for Education in Science and Health at the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro in Brazil, has recently published a report on the disinformation related to the expansion of digital media.
The report, titled Pathways of disinformation: Evangelicals, fake news and Whatsapp in Brazil, focuses on analysing the attitudes of evangelicals towards fake news and its impact on religious Whatsapp groups.
According to the data collected by the research, 49% of Brazilian evangelicals assure that they have received ‘fake news’ in some of their evangelical contact groups.
Furthermore, 29.7% of the evangelicals surveyed acknowledged that they have shared information even though they knew it was untrue.
“It requires resilience to take a stand against participating in the dissemination of lies”, point out the authors of the report.
Political news, the most common
Over 61% of those surveyed said that politics is “a recurring theme” in the fake news they have seen circulating in faith-related Whatsapp groups, while 33% admit to turn to “acquaintances” more than to media for information.
Researchers warn that “the fake news circulation system is part of the digital media and has a strong emotional and trust component”, so that “acritical reading is needed”.
Social media ‘a new way to go to church’
“The intense use of social media as ‘a new way to go to church’ is one of those practices associated with a sense of belonging to the community, that creates an image of leaders and brethren as reliable sources of news”, says Magali Cunha, one of the researchers of the report, in an article written for the Brazilian magazine Ultimato.
According to the survey results, just over 13% of respondents think of pastors and church leaders as the “most reliable source of information”.
High exposure to Whatsapp
The researchers of the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro talk of “an intense use of religious Whatsapp groups, that is widespread among evangelicals”, with up to 90.4% of evangelicals in Brazil participating in that kind of groups. Among Catholics, the percentage drops to 71%.
“Perhaps this largely explains the greater perception of the circulation of disinformation among people in this segment [evangelicals]”, conclude the authors.
Disinformation: A widespread reality
The Brazilian report is not unique. In October 2021, Relevant magazine revealed that troll groups in Europe were controlling many of the most-followed ‘Christian’ Facebook pages.
Furthermore, in January 2021, Lifeway Research published the results of a survey among US pastors which showed that half of the evangelical leaders surveyed claimed to have heard repeated conspiracy theories from members of their congregations.
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Date published: 08/02/2022
Feature image: Image for illustrative purposes only. unsplash.com
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Interesting how at the start of 2020 the conspiracy theorists that warned the masses ..you know..those that were accused of wearing tinfoil hats are now being listened to. They were accused of spreading fake news..and that has continued…yet..as I type people are starting to wake up to what’s happening.
We are living in the last book of the Bible. Most has turned away from listening to their pastors due to the false church promoting the “injectable solution”..Franklin Graham is a perfect example..him..sister..the whole family has taken it and now stuck with permanent heart issues. People are looking elsewhere for accurate information because the globalists controlled main stream media is pushing out their agenda. Take note of the number of ludicrous articles now coming out saying taking paracetamol…shaking out your blanket etc etc can cause heart issues. They are not admitting the obvious even when top cardiologists are speaking up.
If you want to find real accurate news you need to search hard these days.