Desinformação e polarização nas sociedades contemporâneas

Disinformation represents one of the main challenges for modern democratic societies, affecting freedom, coexistence, and social trust, as evidenced during the COVID-19 pandemic. Information disorders and polarization are interrelated phenomena that exacerbate social fragmentation, intensified by the role of social media and artificial intelligence algorithms, which reinforce online echo chambers and the most extreme and polarizing discourses. This monograph presents five case studies from Spain that analyze different social consequences of these processes: the influence of the media on digital polarization, the proliferation of conspiracy theories, the spread of hate speech, and digital inequality in political participation. The volume also includes reviews of three books that address the challenges of disinformation, the role of artificial intelligence, and journalistic verification. The monograph concludes with a reflection on the challenge for social scientists to understand these dynamics and attempt to mitigate their harmful effects. For this purpose, Social Network Analysis (SNA) and new computational methodologies supported by artificial intelligence are extremely useful.