Performance Analysis of Fact-Checking Organisations and Initiatives in Europe: A Critical Overview of Online Platforms Fighting Fake News

2020 ◽  
pp. 217-246
Author(s):  
Tanja Pavleska ◽  
Andrej Školkay ◽  
Bissera Zankova ◽  
Nelson Ribeiro ◽  
Anja Bechmann
Keyword(s):  
Performance Analysis ◽  
Fake News ◽  
Online Platforms ◽  
Fact Checking ◽  
Critical Overview

Using NLP for Fact Checking: A Survey

Designs ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 5 (3) ◽  
pp. 42
Author(s):  
Eric Lazarski ◽  
Mahmood Al-Khassaweneh ◽  
Cynthia Howard
Keyword(s):  
Natural Language Processing ◽  
Natural Language ◽  
Computer Science ◽  
Language Processing ◽  
The Internet ◽  
Fake News ◽  
Fact Checking ◽  
The Many ◽  
Human Powered ◽  
The Web

In recent years, disinformation and “fake news” have been spreading throughout the internet at rates never seen before. This has created the need for fact-checking organizations, groups that seek out claims and comment on their veracity, to spawn worldwide to stem the tide of misinformation. However, even with the many human-powered fact-checking organizations that are currently in operation, disinformation continues to run rampant throughout the Web, and the existing organizations are unable to keep up. This paper discusses in detail recent advances in computer science to use natural language processing to automate fact checking. It follows the entire process of automated fact checking using natural language processing, from detecting claims to fact checking to outputting results. In summary, automated fact checking works well in some cases, though generalized fact checking still needs improvement prior to widespread use.

Tackling online disinformation through media literacy in Spain: The project ‘Que no te la cuelen’

2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (1) ◽  
pp. 149-157 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nereida Carrillo ◽  
Marta Montagut
Keyword(s):  
Media Literacy ◽  
Public Deliberation ◽  
Special Focus ◽  
Fake News ◽  
Public And Private ◽  
Extra Effort ◽  
Literacy Training ◽  
Fact Checking ◽  
Data Location ◽  
Detection Strategies

Media literacy of schoolchildren is a key political goal worldwide: institutions and citizens consider media literacy training to be essential – among other aspects – to combat falsehoods and generate healthy public opinion in democratic contexts. In Spain, various media literacy projects address this phenomenon one of which is ‘Que no te la cuelen’ (‘Don’t be fooled’, QNTLC). The project, which has been developed by the authors of this viewpoint, is implemented through theoretical–practical workshops aimed at public and private secondary pupils (academic years 2018–19, 2019–20 and 2020–21), based around training in fake news detection strategies and online fact-checking tools for students and teachers. This viewpoint describes and reflects on this initiative, conducted in 36 training sessions with schoolchildren aged 14–16 years attending schools in Madrid, Valencia and Barcelona. The workshops are based on van Dijk’s media literacy model, with a special focus on the ‘informational skills’ dimension. The amount of information available through all kinds of online platforms implies an extra effort in selecting, evaluating and sharing information, and the workshop focuses on this process through seven steps: suspect, read/listen/watch carefully, check the source, look for other reliable sources, check the data/location, be self-conscious of your bias and decide whether to share the information or not. The QNTLC sessions teach and train these skills combining gamification strategies – online quiz, verification challenges, ‘infoxication’ dynamics in the class – as well as through a public deliberation among students. Participants’ engagement and stakeholders’ interest in the programme suggest that this kind of training is important or, at least, attract the attention of these collectives in the Spanish context.

scholarly journals Fact checking audiovisual en la era de la posverdad. ¿Qué significa validar una imagen?

2021 ◽  
pp. 19-42
Author(s):  
Aaron Rodríguez-Serrano ◽  
Maria Soler-Campillo ◽  
Javier Marzal-Felici
Keyword(s):  
Fake News ◽  
Fact Checking ◽  
Medios De Comunicacion ◽  
Estudios Culturales

Introducción: Este artículo pretende explorar el amplio debate teórico sobre las relaciones que se establecen entre las imágenes y la complejidad de aplicar sobre ellas conceptos de verdad. Un vistazo a las agencias de Fact Checking contemporáneas demuestra que los bulos y las fake news usan con más frecuencia materiales audiovisuales para respaldar sus mensajes. Metodología: Se realiza una revisión del corpus teórico sobre las relaciones entre imagen y validación/verdad, ejemplificando los límites de las ideas dominantes con análisis de casos basados en el análisis textual. Resultados: Los límites de las relaciones entre verdad y texto audiovisual fueron enunciados por primera vez al hilo de los debates fenomenológicos sobre el realismo, y posteriormente matizados –entre otras– por las escuelas semiótica, los estudios culturales y la actual eclosión de las teorías “postdigitales”. En el marco de dichas teorías se ha generado una tensión a partir de las marcas de veredicción (pixelado, bajos formatos, ruido visual, glitch) y la desafección de la ciudadanía con las imágenes distribuidas por los medios de comunicación oficiales. Conclusiones: En un mundo en el que los medios convencionales cada vez tienen menos capacidad para distribuir imágenes e influir en sus interpretaciones, es necesario replantearse que la validación de las imágenes es una competencia fundamental en la creación de la ciudadanía del futuro. De ahí que la introducción de competencias críticas de lectura audiovisual en los niveles educativos de la enseñanza obligatoria sea la única manera de poner en crisis la propia naturaleza “referencial” de las imágenes.

scholarly journals O discurso das fake news e sua implicação comunicacional na política e na ciência

RECIIS ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 14 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Afonso Albuquerque
Keyword(s):  
Fake News ◽  
Fact Checking

Uma das grandes preocupações de Afonso de Albuquerque relacionada à pesquisa é questionar a apropriação de modelos norte-americanos e do ocidente europeu por outros países, principalmente pelo Brasil, para com isso propor modelos alternativos a essa conduta. Em entrevista à Reciis, o pesquisador discute como a incorporação desses modelos estrangeiros impacta a mídia, o jornalismo, a política e os estudos acadêmicos brasileiros. Alguns desses movimentos de apropriação, denominados ‘reformas’, serviram como base para escamotear ações autoritárias entre governos. O professor relaciona esta questão com o fenômeno das fake news, que se refere a um discurso de reivindicação de monopólio da verdade em um contexto de deslegitimação das instituições, no qual, cada vez mais, se adotam comportamentos autoritários. Sob a perspectiva da democracia, ao se pensar o discurso das fake news, feito pelas agências de fact checking, pela mídia e por corporações de pesquisadores, vê-se que ele se soma aos ataques contemporâneos às instituições. Afonso de Albuquerque é professor titular do Departamento de Estudos Culturais e Mídia e do Programa de Pós-Graduação em Comunicação da Universidade Federal Fluminense.

A Taxonomy Approach to Fake News

2018 ◽  
Vol 2 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Ivan Valchanov ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Communication Channels ◽  
The Internet ◽  
Online Environment ◽  
Fake News ◽  
Media Environment ◽  
The Public ◽  
The Media ◽  
Fact Checking ◽  
Points Of View ◽  
Media Corporations

The development of the Internet and social media and networks as a media environment and communication channels combined with the specificity of the journalistic profession in the online environment are a factor which contributes to the emergence and proliferation of fake news. The lack of reliable fact checking by the media and the fast news consumption by the public lead to mass disinformation about certain issues or subjects. The current paper examines fake news from several points of view and describes the models of their use – as harmless jokes, as lack of journalistic competence or professionalism and as means of manipulation and intentional misleading of public opinion. The attempts of big media corporations to fight fake news are also described.

Fake News

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Neil Levy
Keyword(s):  
Free Speech ◽  
Fake News ◽  
Multiple Sources ◽  
Fact Checking

The blame for fake news obviously lies with the producers. It is plausible, nevertheless, that consumers have a responsibility to avoid fake news, to engage in fact-checking, or to seek multiple sources, including sources with different ideologies. This chapter argues that these strategies have limited utility and if the problem of fake news is to be effectively addressed, we need responses at the supply end, not the consumption end. Since suppliers, who are often ill motivated, cannot be expected to offer or consent to these responses, we need effective regulation or control of sources. The author sketches proposals compatible with maintaining the rights of everyone to free speech.

Combating Fake News Online

2020 ◽  
pp. 273-289
Author(s):  
Mehmet Fatih Çömlekçi
Keyword(s):  
Content Analysis ◽  
Digital Literacy ◽  
Digital Tools ◽  
Political Polarization ◽  
Fake News ◽  
Depth Interview ◽  
Rapid Spread ◽  
Data Journalism ◽  
Fact Checking ◽  
Methodological Approaches

In today's post-truth environment, besides the increase in political polarization, the rapid spread of fake news infringes on society. In the struggle with fake news, fact-checking services have begun to play an important role. The aim of this chapter is to highlight how fact-checking services work, what their strategies and limitations are, their interaction with users, and the digital tools they use in such interactions. Thus, the platforms Teyit.org (Confirmation) and Doğruluk Payı (Share of Truth) that operate in Turkey have been chosen as exemplary cases. In the study, the content analysis and the in-depth interview methodological approaches have been used together. As a conclusion, it has been revealed that these aforementioned fact-checking services increase their activities during election times, adopt the principles of political impartiality and economic transparency, use the practices of data journalism, interact with users, and try to create a digital literacy ecosystem as an ultimate goal.

scholarly journals SpotFake+: A Multimodal Framework for Fake News Detection via Transfer Learning (Student Abstract)

2020 ◽  
Vol 34 (10) ◽  
pp. 13915-13916 ◽  
Author(s):  
Shivangi Singhal ◽  
Anubha Kabra ◽  
Mohit Sharma ◽  
Rajiv Ratn Shah ◽  
Tanmoy Chakraborty ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Transfer Learning ◽  
Contextual Information ◽  
Full Length ◽  
Multimodal Approach ◽  
Fake News ◽  
Online Platforms ◽  
Multiple Modality ◽  
Substantial Rise ◽  
Single Modality

In recent years, there has been a substantial rise in the consumption of news via online platforms. The ease of publication and lack of editorial rigour in some of these platforms have further led to the proliferation of fake news. In this paper, we study the problem of detecting fake news on the FakeNewsNet repository, a collection of full length articles along with associated images. We present SpotFake+, a multimodal approach that leverages transfer learning to capture semantic and contextual information from the news articles and its associated images and achieves the better accuracy for fake news detection. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first work that performs a multimodal approach for fake news detection on a dataset that consists of full length articles. It outperforms the performance shown by both single modality and multiple-modality models. We also release the pretrained model for the benefit of the community.

scholarly journals O papel da memória discursiva em manchetes que desmentem notícias sobre Covid-19

Scripta ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 25 (54) ◽  
pp. 68-95
Author(s):  
Gabriel Guimarães Alexandre
Keyword(s):  
Fake News ◽  
Literacy Studies ◽  
New Literacy ◽  
New Literacy Studies ◽  
Fact Checking

A pandemia de Covid-19 trouxe-nos um contexto de exceção. Restrições impostas à sociedade foram aplicadas por governos de diferentes partes do mundo, gerando dificuldades, por exemplo, de escolha entre ter privacidade de dados ou saúde prometida por vigilância biométrica (HARARI, 2020). Como “resposta” à disseminação de fake news – não só sobre a doença, mas também sobre outros temas – as agências de fact-checking (PANGRAZIO, 2018; SPINELLI, SANTOS, 2018) surgem com o objetivo de verificá-las, classificando-as em “verdadeiras” ou “falsas”, segundo gradação. Quando publicam a checagem realizada, as agências utilizam manchetes que desmentem as notícias. Entre os padrões linguísticos observados, a negação é bastante frequente nas manchetes verificadas em mídias sociais. Por ser um índice de implícito, está presente no enunciado para produzir sentido: a memória discursiva é, pois, um modo de compreender o estatuto dos implícitos (ACHARD, 1999; PÊCHEUX, 1999). Logo, partimos da hipótese de que a prática de estruturar a negação, nas manchetes analisadas, pode fazer emergir questões interlocutivas via evocação de certa memória discursiva. Com base em pressupostos teórico-metodológicos dos estudos de letramentos (New Literacy Studies) e da Análise do discurso francesa, este trabalho objetivou analisar o papel da memória discursiva em 68 manchetes, publicadas em março de 2020 por duas agências (“Chequeado” e “Agência Lupa), as quais desmentem notícias sobre Covid-19 em mídias sociais. Os resultados obtidos permitiram identificar três estruturas de negação frequentes nas manchetes e parecem confirmar a hipótese de partida, contribuindo com os estudos de letramentos, quanto à formação do leitor em tempos de pandemia.

scholarly journals Plataformas fact-checking: las fakes news desmentidas por Newtral en la crisis del coronavirus en España

2020 ◽  
pp. 103
Author(s):  
Yaiza Pozo-Montes ◽  
Marina León-Manovel
Keyword(s):  
Fake News ◽  
Redes Sociales ◽  
Fact Checking ◽  
Estudio De Caso

Introducción: El fact-checking, o la verificación de datos, se ha convertido en una práctica periodística cada vez más en boga. Sin duda, una herramienta que ha demostrado ser necesaria para desmentir las fake news que circulan por las redes sociales, tal y como ha sucedido en el caso concreto de la crisis sanitaria del coronavirus. Objetivos: Analizar las características de las noticias falsas desmentidas por Newtral Media Audiovisual y determinar su tendencia durante las sucesivas prórrogas del Estado de Alarma. Metodología: Se han examinado 104 informaciones que hacen referencia al COVID-19 en España, desde el 14 de marzo hasta el 4 de mayo de 2020, mediante el análisis cuantitativo y cualitativo del estudio de caso. Resultados: Todas las fake news han convergido en diferentes redes sociales, pero el canal principal para su difusión ha sido WhatsApp, siendo el texto y el audio los formatos que han presentado una mayor manipulación. La temática predominante de los bulos ha sido la política y las falsas atribuciones a instituciones han logrado engañar a la ciudadanía. Conclusiones: El fact-checking constata su éxito para desmentir las falsedades mediante el uso de datos. Se trata de un fenómeno actual que requiere ser investigado en diversos campos académicos.

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