New journalistic genres in social weeklies

Abstract

<jats:p>The traditional system of journalistic genres requires an update, which was attempted in a relatively coherent concept by T. Rončáková. We applied her genre classification containing both new and traditional genres to a sample of Slovak social weeklies and statistically tested the presence and quantity of individual genres. At the same time, we examined the presence of the author's opinion, verbs in the 1st person singular and the hidden advertising in the texts. The presented findings on genres and the presence of opinions, subjectivity and hidden advertising were interpreted in the context of the classification of individual periodicals, either elite or lifestyle ones, which helped determine the impact of the tabloid orientation of periodicals on their content and form.</jats:p>

Debunking as a Method of Uncovering Disinformation and Fake News

“…This trend continues in the perexes (2) of selected texts, which develop disinformation, and also it is refuted in this part of the text. Three out of five photographs emphasize that the articles concern unsubstantiated or misleading information (2). The location of the key fact (2), which is the most important of the truthful facts, is also problematic.…”

“…On the other hand, their efforts not to attack opponents, not to ridicule and not to shame should be emphasized (1). Like most of the monitored media, Čas.sk does not use story (2) or visualization (2) to interpret disinformation. They do not apply subtitles in their texts, they only divide them by means of paragraphs, but they make greater use of working in bold, with which they emphasize the supporting information.…”

“…The opening image is mostly illustrative; it does not have a significant effect on emotions (1). They then proceed to the very refutation of the disinformation (2). In this case, refuting the untruth is a continuous process running through several parts of the text.…”

“…We do not find elements of negativity in the analyzed articles of the SME.sk web media (1)-the authors always try to solve the given event and do not focus on the subject with regard to the spreader of the disinformation (1). Nor do they use stories (2) to "illustrate" an event (except for one article, which was based on the story of a person returning from abroad). In this context, it should be noted that newsrooms should not only expect these types of reports, but should proactively look for stories about real people, which is not difficult especially given the topic of coronavirus.…”

“…Although it is possible to speak of the presence and existence of various kinds of lies and manipulation techniques before the emergence of the Internet, no medium has provided such opportunities for the dissemination of fake news as does the digital space [1]. It is for this reason that journalists, whose ambition is to honestly verify and obtain information, are faced with various pseudo-media, blogs and social media accounts on a daily basis, presenting more or less thoughtfully and with certain goals various half-truths, information taken out of context or visual and audiovisual lies [2]. The creators of the news have thus (un)plannedly expanded their professional duties, namely on the one hand to identify the fake news itself and on the other hand to state the correct facts in the given context.…”