Fake news and fact-checking at Brazilian presidential elections

A qualitative study about the Comprova project

Abstract

A concern around the world, the so-called fake news generated a reaction from traditional journalism: fact-checking projects. In view of these conditions, the article aims to investigate, on an exploratory basis, how rumors were verified during the electoral process, focusing on the production of these verifications. The empirical object of the paper is the Comprova project, which featured reporters from various newspaper companies. To reach the proposed goal, semi-structured interviews were conducted with four journalists who worked on the project. Subsequently, the answers were submitted to a Content Analysis performed using the software Iramuteq. The results demonstrate, among other findings, that WhatsApp was one of the tools most used by the verifiers and that the checking process has distinctions in comparison to traditional journalism.