The role of journalism in combating fake news: the case of the last day of the 2019 election campaign in Portugal

Authors

  • Tiago Lima Quintanilha Iscte — Instituto Universitário de Lisboa, Centro de Investigação e Estudos de Sociologia (CIES-Iscte), Lisboa, Portugal
  • Gustavo Cardoso Iscte — Instituto Universitário de Lisboa, Centro de Investigação e Estudos de Sociologia (CIES-Iscte), Lisboa, Portugal
  • Vania Baldi Universidade de Aveiro, Aveiro, Portugal
  • Miguel Paisana Iscte — Instituto Universitário de Lisboa, Centro de Investigação e Estudos de Sociologia (CIES-Iscte), Lisboa, Portugal

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.7458/SPP20219720823

Keywords:

election campaign, fake news, journalism

Abstract

This article reflects on the role of journalism in the deconstruction of fake news propaganda that came out in the media on the last day of the 2019 parliamentary election campaign in Portugal. We collected news items carried by the Portuguese media and contextualised this media coverage with regard to the impact of disinformation on confidence in the news with the help of data collated as part of the Digital News Report project. We found that journalistic scrutiny, aided by the characteristics of the Portuguese media system, might have contributed to a zero effect of this fake news on the election results, unlike what happened in elections in other countries, such as the United States, United Kingdom and Brazil.

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Published

2021-08-02

Issue

No. 97 (2021)

Section

Artigos

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