Fake news and disinformation are concepts that have entered everyday life, which we can no longer consider foreign to most people. Academic interest has accompanied this growing interest, especially in recent years. In a quick search exercise on Google Scholar, we identified more than 25,000 studies related to disinformation, with about 40% appearing in the last three years. It is in this sense that a new publication, \u201cDisinformation Studies: Perspectives from An Emerging Field\u201d appears, a book edited by Jo\u00e3o Carlos Correia, Pedro Jer\u00f3nimo and In\u00eas Amaral and published by LabCom Books, an open access publisher of the University of Beira Interior, Covilh\u00e3, Portugal.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
This interest started at the ECREA 2021 Post Conference \u201cDisinformation Studies: Perspectives to An Emerging Research Field\u201d, which took place online. Previously, the University of Beira Interior had already promoted the COVID-19 #DisInfoStudies Seminar, also online but in 2020. After that, the debate quickly widened and was joined by several scholars worldwide. See video<\/a> ”Universidade Beira Interior – Covid-19 Disinfostudies Seminar” (in English & Portuguese)<\/p>\n\n\n\n According to Jo\u00e3o Carlos Correi \u201cOne level of disinformation has to do with facts and appears mostly related to the deliberate twist of numbers, nature of things, and the furious denial of some common sense and taken-for-granted social facts, or even lies. It is boosted by the emotional factors and by the well-known affection law: people exposed to, understand better, memorize deeply, and share heavily, messages, with which they agree, disregarding the fact of being true or false, depending mostly on the gratification they obtain with that message. It is a kind of information that are articulated with the so-called fake news as a particular repertoire of propaganda in my point of view\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n This book which aims to foster an open debate includes nine chapters:<\/p>\n\n\n\n