The presence of regional and local aspects about disinformation in scientific production in Spain and Portugal: a review of the state of the art

Ricardo Morais; Valeriano  Piñeiro-Naval

doi:10.31921/doxacom.n41a2905

Authors

Ricardo Morais University of Porto https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8827-0299
Valeriano Piñeiro-Naval University of Salamanca https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9521-3364

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.31921/doxacom.n41a2905

Keywords:

Disinformation, regional, local, Spain, Portugal, scientific articles, Web of Science

Abstract

In an era characterized by the rapid spread of information across digital platforms, understanding the nuances of disinformation has become increasingly critical. Since disinformation is a global problem but has substantially different manifestations at regional and local scales, in this article, we aim to explore the extent to which academic research on this issue accurately reflects the contextual realities of the phenomenon. Through a bibliometric analysis of performance and an exhaustive literature review of scientific articles published in Portugal and Spain between January 1, 2019 - April 30, 2025, and indexed in Web of Science and Scopus (n=187), we try to understand how academic research has addressed this phenomenon and what space has been given to disinformation’s regional and local dimensions. Therefore, in this work, we aim to identify gaps in current research that overlook community-specific factors influencing the dissemination and reception of disinformation, analyzing whether disinformation processes have been studied in Spain and Portugal from regional and local perspectives. Our findings will highlight the need for more localized approaches in academic research, ensuring that studies contribute to the theoretical understanding of disinformation as a global phenomenon with practical interventions in combating it at regional and local levels. Moreover, this proposal advocates for a more comprehensive understanding of disinformation in academic research in its different dimensions and geographies.

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Author Biographies

Ricardo Morais, University of Porto

Assistant Professor at the Faculty of Arts and Humanities of the University of Porto. He holds a PhD in Communication Sciences from the University of Beira Interior (UBI). He is a researcher at the Transdisciplinary Culture, Space and Memory Research Center (CITCEM), and a member of the Information, Communication and Digital Culture research group. He is also a collaborator at LabCom, a research unit at the University of Beira Interior and Foreign Collaborating Member of the Multimundos research group - Interdisciplinary Studies of Contemporary Tensions, at the Federal University of Mato Grosso. He is a researcher of the project “CitiLink - Enhancing municipal transparency and citizen engagement through AI: from unstructured to structured data”. He was a researcher on the project “MediaTrust.Lab - Laboratory of Regional Media for Civic Trust and Literacy”. He has researched, published and presented works, articles and book chapters in different areas of communication, among which journalism stands out, but also political communication and organizational communication.
Valeriano Piñeiro-Naval, University of Salamanca

Permanent Lecturer at the Department of Sociology and Communication (University of Salamanca, Spain), where he teaches courses in transmedia storytelling, audiovisual communication and cultural heritage. He is member of the research group Observatory for Audiovisual Contents, where he is part of several research projects funded by the Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation. His research interests focus on the dynamics established between culture, heritage and tourism in the digital society, content and design analysis of municipal websites, meta-research in communication sciences and transmedia storytelling. He also coordinates the Master’s Degree in Audiovisual Communication: Research and Innovation at the University of Salamanca.

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