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.
