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As a crucial part of their mandate, public service media have historically used sports to construct and nurture cultural citizenship. In a landscape characterised by dwindling resources and growing competition from pay-TV channels and on-demand streaming services, concerns about how public service media will enhance cultural citizenship through new platforms, including social media, are all the greater. In the digital age, delivering diverse content should remain a foundation of public service media in their countless platforms: public media should not only concentrate on major sports but also provide exposure to traditionally underrepresented disciplines and individuals, including sportswomen and athletes with disabilities. Through content analysis, this research examines the agenda diversity offered by the British Broadcasting Corporation through its sports-centred Twitter account ( @BBCSport). The analysis of 10,821 tweets indicates how the British Broadcasting Corporation's content reinforces, rather than counteracts, the long-standing diversity imbalances in the analogue age. This case study facilitates an understanding of the nuanced relationship among public service media, social media and sports, demonstrating that more content does not necessarily ensure diversity. The football-driven, male-centred and able-bodied agenda displayed by @BBCSport signals that public service media should reframe their social media strategies to adequately contribute to fostering cultural citizenship.

As democracy-building tools, fact-checking platforms serve as critical interventions in the fight against disinformation and polarization in the public sphere. The Duke Reporters’ Lab notes that there are 290 active fact-checking sites in 83 countries, including a wide range of initiatives in Latin America and Spain. These regions share major challenges such as limited journalistic autonomy, difficulties of accessing public data, politicization of the media, and the growing impact of disinformation. This research expands upon the findings presented in previous literature to gain further insight into the standards, values, and underlying practices embedded in Spanish and Latin American projects while identifying the specific challenges that these organizations face. In-depth interviews were conducted with decision-makers of the following independent platforms: <em>Chequeado</em> (Argentina), <em>UYCheck</em> (Uruguay), <em>Maldita.es</em> and <em>Newtral</em> (Spain), <em>Fact Checking</em> (Chile), <em>Agência Lupa</em> (Brazil), <em>Ecuador Chequea</em> (Ecuador), and <em>ColombiaCheck</em> (Colombia). This qualitative approach offers nuanced data on the volume and frequency of checks, procedures, dissemination tactics, and the perceived role of the public. Despite relying on small teams, the examined outlets’ capacity to verify facts is noteworthy. Inspired by best practices in the US and Europe and the model established by <em>Chequeado</em>, all the sites considered employ robust methodologies while leveraging the power of digital tools and audience participation. Interviewees identified three core challenges in fact-checking practice: difficulties in accessing public data, limited resources, and the need to reach wider audiences. Starting from these results, the article discusses the ways in which fact-checking operations could be strengthened.

Through a mixed-method approach, we examine the sports programming offered by BBC ALBA between 2008 and 2016 and identify the value that the channel creates in Scotland through its diverse sports portfolio. In an increasingly cluttered and complex scenario where pay TV giants Sky and BT hold a plethora of top-tier rights and BBC Scotland and STV cannot fit more sport into their schedules, BBC ALBA serves Gaelic-speaking and national audiences with a regular diet of quality sports programming. Beyond being instrumental to filling schedules, sports content has been a gateway for Gaelic, a key driver of BBC ALBA's investment in the creative sector and a contributor to the development of grassroots sport in Scotland. However, the financial situation under which the channel operates makes it very difficult to sustain and improve its current position. This case study demonstrates that sport broadcasting offers genuine opportunities to maintain linguistic and cultural diversity in small nations, even in a context characterized by escalating competition, dwindling resources and the proliferation of multiple viewing portals.