Hoax hunters or disentanglers of disinforming narratives? Iberian fact-checking and the fight against disinformation
The recent proliferation of information disorders has drawn significant academic attention to the tools designed to counter their harmful effects, with fact-checking emerging as one of the key forms to fight disinformation. This article proposes an investigation that triangulates between quantitati...
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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Universidad de Alicante
2025-03-01
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| Series: | Revista Mediterránea de Comunicación |
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| Online Access: | https://www.mediterranea-comunicacion.org/article/view/28237 |
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| author | Roberto Gelado-Marcos Borja Ventura-Salom Santana-Lois Poch-Butler Guillermo De-la-Calle-Velasco |
| author_facet | Roberto Gelado-Marcos Borja Ventura-Salom Santana-Lois Poch-Butler Guillermo De-la-Calle-Velasco |
| author_sort | Roberto Gelado-Marcos |
| collection | DOAJ |
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The recent proliferation of information disorders has drawn significant academic attention to the tools designed to counter their harmful effects, with fact-checking emerging as one of the key forms to fight disinformation. This article proposes an investigation that triangulates between quantitative and qualitative approaches to shed light on the verification activities carried out by Spanish and Portuguese fact-checkers integrated in the IBERIFIER hub (EFE Verifica, Maldita.es, Newtral, Poligrafo, and Verificat) –all of which abide by the IFCN standards. A series of in-depth exploratory interviews to representatives of the aforesaid fact-checking institutions were conducted at an initial stage with an aim to orient the subsequent statistical analysis of the database of verified stories published in 2022 and 2023 (N=3,697), put together by those fact-checkers following criteria and categories agreed upon by all of them. The quantitative approach was later complemented by a discourse analysis aimed at clarifying fact-checking trends and further discussing disinforming narratives in the Iberian context. The results of this investigation indicate that, while Iberian fact-checkers identify the need of transcending the debunking of individual stories through 'explainers', which aim at the overarching disinforming narratives rather than simply fact-checking specific hoaxes, their production in the last two years has focused on the latter rather than the former. As a possible way to improve that, we suggest not only an increased use of the ‘explainer’ category when debunking disinformation but also redefining such category to clarify its specific aim at the disarticulation of disinforming narratives.
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| format | Article |
| id | doaj-art-805cee19104c48c5ab0752dccff6dac7 |
| institution | OA Journals |
| issn | 1989-872X |
| language | English |
| publishDate | 2025-03-01 |
| publisher | Universidad de Alicante |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Revista Mediterránea de Comunicación |
| spelling | doaj-art-805cee19104c48c5ab0752dccff6dac72025-08-20T02:27:16ZengUniversidad de AlicanteRevista Mediterránea de Comunicación1989-872X2025-03-0110.14198/MEDCOM.28237Hoax hunters or disentanglers of disinforming narratives? Iberian fact-checking and the fight against disinformationRoberto Gelado-Marcos0Borja Ventura-Salom1Santana-Lois Poch-Butler2Guillermo De-la-Calle-Velasco3Universidad San Pablo - CEU, CEU UniversitiesUniversidad San Pablo - CEU, CEU UniversitiesUniversidad Rey Juan CarlosUniversidad San Pablo - CEU, CEU Universities The recent proliferation of information disorders has drawn significant academic attention to the tools designed to counter their harmful effects, with fact-checking emerging as one of the key forms to fight disinformation. This article proposes an investigation that triangulates between quantitative and qualitative approaches to shed light on the verification activities carried out by Spanish and Portuguese fact-checkers integrated in the IBERIFIER hub (EFE Verifica, Maldita.es, Newtral, Poligrafo, and Verificat) –all of which abide by the IFCN standards. A series of in-depth exploratory interviews to representatives of the aforesaid fact-checking institutions were conducted at an initial stage with an aim to orient the subsequent statistical analysis of the database of verified stories published in 2022 and 2023 (N=3,697), put together by those fact-checkers following criteria and categories agreed upon by all of them. The quantitative approach was later complemented by a discourse analysis aimed at clarifying fact-checking trends and further discussing disinforming narratives in the Iberian context. The results of this investigation indicate that, while Iberian fact-checkers identify the need of transcending the debunking of individual stories through 'explainers', which aim at the overarching disinforming narratives rather than simply fact-checking specific hoaxes, their production in the last two years has focused on the latter rather than the former. As a possible way to improve that, we suggest not only an increased use of the ‘explainer’ category when debunking disinformation but also redefining such category to clarify its specific aim at the disarticulation of disinforming narratives. https://www.mediterranea-comunicacion.org/article/view/28237Disinformationfact-checkingfake newsinformative disordersmisinformationPortugal |
| spellingShingle | Roberto Gelado-Marcos Borja Ventura-Salom Santana-Lois Poch-Butler Guillermo De-la-Calle-Velasco Hoax hunters or disentanglers of disinforming narratives? Iberian fact-checking and the fight against disinformation Revista Mediterránea de Comunicación Disinformation fact-checking fake news informative disorders misinformation Portugal |
| title | Hoax hunters or disentanglers of disinforming narratives? Iberian fact-checking and the fight against disinformation |
| title_full | Hoax hunters or disentanglers of disinforming narratives? Iberian fact-checking and the fight against disinformation |
| title_fullStr | Hoax hunters or disentanglers of disinforming narratives? Iberian fact-checking and the fight against disinformation |
| title_full_unstemmed | Hoax hunters or disentanglers of disinforming narratives? Iberian fact-checking and the fight against disinformation |
| title_short | Hoax hunters or disentanglers of disinforming narratives? Iberian fact-checking and the fight against disinformation |
| title_sort | hoax hunters or disentanglers of disinforming narratives iberian fact checking and the fight against disinformation |
| topic | Disinformation fact-checking fake news informative disorders misinformation Portugal |
| url | https://www.mediterranea-comunicacion.org/article/view/28237 |
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