Qual é a fonte da checagem? Análise da seleção de fontes jornalísticas nas agências de fact-checking aos fatos e lupa durante o ano eleitoral de 2022 metadata.dc.creator: Andrade Neto, Paulo Pessôa de

Abstract

This research analyzes the process of selecting journalistic sources in the newsrooms of the fact-checking agencies Aos Fatos and Lupa. Focusing on the 2022 general elections in Brazil, the study sought to understand how sources were selected from among official, public, expert, and opinion-leading figures who, in many cases, deliberately spread and promoted disinformation about the elections. The overall objective, therefore, is to analyze, through the Journalistic Coverage Analysis proposed by Silva and Maia (2011), the phenomenological concepts of Chinazzo (2013), and semi-structured synchronous interviews with Aos Fatos's Chief Reporter, Leonardo Cazes, and Lupa's Executive Director, Natália Leal, how the verification, investigation, and selection of sources for fact-checking efforts were carried out to combat the informational disorder targeting the 2022 electoral process. The corpus consists of 1.158 fact-checks conducted by the two agencies between January 1, 2022, and December 31, 2022, targeting the electoral process, democratic institutions, political movements, and candidates running in the election. After analyzing the 13.013 fact-checking sources, the results indicate a high use of "Reference" sources by both agencies, providing the best option for readers to replicate the fact-checker's methodology. Along with presenting the sources amid a unique election and the anti-democratic demonstrations sweeping Brazil, the fact-checks also defended democracy, considered one of the pillars of journalism. Observation of the work of fact-checking agencies also revealed the need for a debate about what constitutes truth in journalism, in addition to exposing a possible mediation of the impact of a disinformation factory and the circulation of these misleading products.