Elections and fact-checking in Portugalthe case of the 2019 and 2022 legislative elections

  1. Baptista, João-Pedro 1
  2. Jerónimo, Pedro 2
  3. Piñeiro-Naval, Valeriano 3
  4. Gradim, Anabela 2
  1. 1 Universidade de Trás-os-Montes e Alto Douro / Labcom - Comunicação e Artes
  2. 2 Universidade da Beira Interior
    info

    Universidade da Beira Interior

    Covilhã, Portugal

    ROR https://ror.org/03nf36p02

  3. 3 Universidad de Salamanca
    info

    Universidad de Salamanca

    Salamanca, España

    ROR https://ror.org/02f40zc51

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Zeitschrift:
El profesional de la información

ISSN: 1386-6710,  1699-2407

Datum der Publikation: 2022

Titel der Ausgabe: Educommunication

Ausgabe: 31

Nummer: 6

Art: Artikel

DOI: 10.3145/EPI.2022.NOV.11 DIALNET GOOGLE SCHOLAR lock_openOpen Access editor

Andere Publikationen in: El profesional de la información

Zusammenfassung

Fact-checking is a relatively recent journalistic genre in Portugal that has been growing in recent years, alternately viewed as a journalism reform movement or criticized as inefficient and idealistic. Our study is a comparative analysis of the output of the Portuguese fact-checkers Observador and Polígrafo in the 2019–2022 elections to determine whether their coverage is politically biased. Performing a quantitative content analysis of all fact-checking articles on national politics (n = 265) published during the campaign for the parliamentary elections, our results show that fact-checking activity has increased in the last elections. These data may indicate that fact-checking agencies have increased their capacity and resources, but may also suggest a greater presence of subjectivity and deception in Portuguese political discourse. The focus of Portuguese fact-checkers is statements produced during political debates (70%), while social media verification is disregarded. Our most significant finding is the lack of evidence of partisan or political bias in the selection of the assessed statements. Both fact-checkers do not show a tendency to check statements that are more or less anti- or pro-government and/or statements that are ideologically favorable to the left wing or the right wing. Therefore, our findings confirm the high level of professionalism and impartiality of Portuguese fact-checkers evidenced in other studies, and demonstrate that the Portuguese citizen’s skepticism toward the practice has no foundation.

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Este artículo es parte de MediaTrust.Lab - Local Media Lab for Civic Trust and Literacy, un proyecto financiado por la Fundación para la Ciencia y la Tecnología (PTDC/COM-JOR/3866/2020), Portugal.

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Fuente de los datos: Dialnet