The agenda of disinformation: "fake news" and membership categorization analysis in the 2018 Brazilian presidential elections

Abstract

One of the main aspects of public debate in Brazil in the period that preceded the 2018 presidential elections was the dissemination of false stories via social media and messaging apps. Disinformation, misinformation, and mal-information – phenomena that comprehend elements such as wrongful, out of context, distorted and fabricated information, among others – were a major concern in the election, highlighted by the number of false stories debunked by independent fact-checkers. In the 20-day period between the two rounds of the presidential election, six fact-checking websites posted 228 verifications of false stories disseminated on social media and/or messaging apps, covering a range of about 132 different topics. This article aims to analyze the categorizations enunciated in their discourses. In order to do so, the methodological perspective utilized was the Membership Categorization Analysis, affiliated with the tradition of Ethnomethodology.A disseminação de histórias falsas em aplicativos de mensagens e redes sociais da internet foi um dos elementos centrais da conversação civil no Brasil no período que antecedeu as eleições presidenciais brasileiras em 2018. A preocupação com a disseminação da desinformação – fenômeno que se compõe, entre outros elementos, por informações erradas, descontextualizadas, distorcidas ou falsificadas – se refletiu na quantidade de histórias falsas verificadas e desmentidas por agências independentes de checagens de fatos. No período de 20 dias entre as votações de primeiro e segundo turnos das eleições, as seis principais agências do país publicaram 228 verificações de histórias falsas disseminadas em redes sociais da internet ou aplicativos de troca mensagens, referentes a 132 diferentes pautas. Neste estudo foram analisadas as categorizações enunciadas nos discursos dessas histórias falsas, com a utilização da Análise de Categorização de Pertencimento (ACP), ferramenta teórico-metodológica de origem na Etnometodologia.La propagación de historias falsas en servicios de mensajería instantánea y redes sociales de Internet fue uno de los elementos centrales de las conversaciones civiles en Brasil durante el periodo previo a las elecciones presidenciales brasileñas en 2018. La preocupación con la diseminación de la desinformación – fenómeno compuesto por informaciones erróneas, descontextualizadas, distorsionadas o falsificadas, entre otros elementos – fue visible en la cantidad de historias falsas verificadas y refutadas por organizaciones de fact-checking. En el período de 20 días entre las votaciones de la primera y segunda vuelta de las elecciones, las seis principales fact-checkers del país publicaron 228 verificaciones de historias falsas difundidas en redes sociales de internet o servicios de mensajería instantánea, relativas a 132 pautas diferentes. Este artículo trata de analizar las categorizaciones enunciadas en los discursos de esas historias falsas con el auxilio del Análisis de Pertenencia Categorial (Membership Categorization Analysis – MCA), herramienta teórico-metodológica que proviene de la Etnometodología.

Fact-Checking Interventions as Counteroffensives to Disinformation Growth: Standards, Values, and Practices in Latin America and Spain

“…The research builds on previous works focused in those territories (Bernal-Triviño & Clares-Gavilán, 2019;Chaves & Braga, 2019;López-Pan & Rodríguez-Rodríguez, 2020;Magallón-Rosa, 2019;Palau-Sampio, 2018;Palomo & Sedano, 2018;Rodríguez-Pérez, 2020;Ufarte-Ruiz et al, 2020;) by offering a deep understanding of the standards, values, and practices while identifying the specific challenges that eight independent organizations in Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Ecuador, Spain, and Uruguay currently face. Through qualitative interviews, this work contributes to the fact-checking literature by offering decision-makers' insight on the volume and frequency of checks, procedures, and the perceived role of the public.…”

“…Several exploratory studies have offered an overview of the organizational structures and methods deployed by Spanish-language fact-checking sites (Bernal-Triviño & Clares-Gavilán, 2019;López-Pan & Rodríguez-Rodríguez, 2020;Palomo & Sedano, 2018;Rodríguez-Pérez, 2020;. Other contributions have focused on the task carried out by independent fact-checkers during political campaigns (Chaves & Braga, 2019;Magallón-Rosa, 2019;. Combining quantitative and qualitative approaches, Palau-Sampio (2018) examined nine fact-checking projects in six Latin American countries to analyse their workflows as well as the topics and actors that are on their agendas.…”

Unveiling the truth: A systematic review of fact-checking and fake news research in social sciences

“…The research contributions variable has been analyzed from a qualitative perspective. In this sense, among the contributions of the analyzed articles, the formulation of different typologies of false content (i.e., Chaves & Braga, 2019;Finneman & Thomas, 2018;Lu, 2020;Molina-Canabate & Magallon-Rosa, 2020;Molina et al, 2019;Salaverría et al, 2020;Su et al, 2018), and even of media manipulation mechanisms (i.e., Levitskaya & Fedorov, 2020) stand out. All these established classifications are helpful not only at the academic level but also at the practical level.…”

Social globalisation and quality of democracy: An analysis for old and young democracies

“…Recent cases in Zimbabwe, for example, show how fake news and cyber-propaganda were omnipresent in the mainstream and social media during the country’s election (Ncube, 2019). Other examples where social media, fake news and social bots impacted politics are Brazil (Chaves and Braga, 2019) and the United States (Persily, 2017).…”