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

Authors

  • Joí£o-Pedro Baptista Universidade de Trás-os-Montes e Alto Douro / Labcom - Comunicaí§í£o e Artes https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3684-1923
  • Pedro Jerónimo Universidade de Beira Interior
  • vale.naval@usual.es Universidad de Salamanca
  • Anabela Gradim Universidade de Beira Interior

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.3145/epi.2022.nov.11

Keywords:

Fact-checking, Disinformation, Political bias, Partisanship, Left-wing, Right-wing, Digital media, Observador, Polí­grafo, Elections, Portugal

Abstract

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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Published

2022-11-16

How to Cite

Baptista, J.-P., Jerónimo, P., Piñeiro-Naval, V., & Gradim, A. (2022). Elections and fact-checking in Portugal: the case of the 2019 and 2022 legislative elections. Profesional De La información, 31(6). https://doi.org/10.3145/epi.2022.nov.11

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Research articles