News and climate change: Opinions, degree of information and awareness of Italian university students

ABSTRACT The main purpose of the present study was better understanding opinions, beliefs and awareness of a group of Italian university students about (1) climate change; (2) trust about news and media and (3) their self-perception of the quality, accuracy and completeness of the information they have on the topic. A questionnaire was administered to 585 students of University of Udine, in order to understand (1) their relationship with the media/media consumption; (2) the main sources of information; (3) their degree of trust and their awareness regarding the different media; (4) their habits regarding the verification of sources and (5) how much they are really interested in, and informed on, the issues of climate change. Students declare (1) media consumption focused on new media (they declare themselves influenced about climate above all by the content of social media or by info available on the Internet); (2) a (theoretical) high attention to the issue of climate change but also (3) a scarce frequency of active search for information on this issue. The students' responses also indicate a (4) general distrust of the various media, in particular about the media that they effectively use, both in general and in relation to the topic dealt with and, (5) although they declare that they often carry out source checks and are able to list numerous signs of recognition of a false or biased news, (6) their self-perception about the quality, accuracy and completeness of the information they have on the topic is quite low.