Fact-checks: the liquidity of a genre. A Portuguese case-study in a pandemic context

Abstract

This study proposes to approach fact-checking as a process of journalistic practice and as a discursive genre (fact-check) shared by different fields of communication, from journalism to strategic communication. The COVID-19 pandemic has reinforced the need to distinguish between false and reliable information. From the analysis of 205 fact-checks about vaccines published by Polígrafo, collected from the Facebook page of this fact-checking agency, we conclude that: i) 79.5% of the analyzed publications are based on information released in online social networks; ii) 82% of the verified information is false or contains some kind of inaccuracy; iii) the cases verified as true are, in their majority, information that intends to clarify doubts about vaccination; iv) most of the verifications derive from official sources (31.1%), followed by specialized sources (21.6%); v) fact-checks can be understood as a journalistic cybergenre, appropriated by strategic communication.