The explosion of new political speech in digital formats in the 2008 elections, especially those involving social networking, offered new opportunities and challenges for political journalists, campaign participants and voters alike. This review of new political media in 2008 examines how these new methods of political organizing and communications work and provides insights to further understand how media can best cover and participate in them. The thesis details how 2008 was the first fully Web 2.0 election, exhibiting its characteristics of interactivity, use of databases and the "long tail" of microniche Internet websites. Three new media uses - online, database-driven political speech fact checking as exemplified by PolitiFact; the social networking site Facebook; and interactive, no-cost video streaming on YouTube - illustrate where the changes from traditional political communications to new media are most dramatic. A heightened awareness of emerging political communications forms and a new model for political journalists' interaction with news consumers and vastly different skills sets for reporters will be needed for news media to cover and participate in the new digital electorate.

La thèse vise à explorer des modèles et algorithmes d'extraction de connaissance et d'interconnexion de bases de données hétérogènes, appliquée à la gestion de contenus tels que rencontrés fréquemment dans le quotidien des journalistes. Le travail se déroulera dans le cadre du projet ANR ContentCheck (2016-2019) qui fournit le financement et dans le cadre duquel nous collaborons aussi avec l'équipe "Les Décodeurs" (journalistes spécialisés dans le fact-checking) du journal Le Monde.La démarche scientifique de la thèse se décompose comme suit:1. Identifier les technologies et domaines de gestion de contenu (texte, données, connaissances) intervenant de façon recurrente (ou dont le besoin est ressenti comme important) dans l'activité des journalistes.Il est par exemple déjà clair que ceux-ci ont l'habitude d'utiliser "en interne" quelques bases de données construites par les journalistes eux-mêmes ; ils disposent aussi d'outils internes (à la rédaction) de recherche par mots-clé ; cependant, ils souhaiterait augmenter leur capacité d'indexation sémantique...Parmi ces problèmes, identifier ceux pour lesquels des solutions techniques (informatiques) sont connues, et le cas échéant mis en oeuvre dans des systèmes existants.2. S'attaquer aux problèmes ouverts (sur le plan de la recherche), pour lesquels des réponses satisfaisantes manquent, liés à la modélisation et à l'algorithmique efficace pour des contenus textuels, sémantiques, et des données, dans un contexte journalistique. / Digital content is increasingly produced nowadays in a variety of media such as news and social network sites, personal Web sites, blogs etc. In particular, a large and dynamic part of such content is related to media-worthy events, whether of general interest (e.g., the war in Syria) or of specialized interest to a sub-community of users (e.g., sport events or genetically modified organisms). While such content is primarily meant for the human users (readers), interest is growing in its automatic analysis, understanding and exploitation. Within the ANR project ContentCheck, we are interested in developing textual and semantic tools for analyzing content shared through digital media. The proposed PhD project takes place within this contract, and will be developed based on the interactions with our partner from Le Monde. The PhD project aims at developing algorithms and tools for :Classifying and annotating mixed content (from articles, structured databases, social media etc.) based on an existing set of topics (or ontology) ;Information and relation extraction from a text which may comprise a statement to be fact-checked, with a particular focus on capturing the time dimension ; a sample statement is for instance « VAT on iron in France was the highest in Europe in 2015 ».Building structured queries from extracted information and relations, to be evaluated against reference databases used as trusted information against which facts can be checked.

This diploma thesis focuses on the dissemination of conspiracy theories, fake news and hoaxes and the role of media in this process. First, the basic concepts are explained and the topic of the thesis is put in a broader context. The functioning of disinformation media is described including the description of the local scene. Other channels used to deceive recipients include e-mails and applications, social networks, and word of mouth. Special attention is paid to the regular media and the rules according to which they should operate. The theory is followed by a practical part, which maps the spreading of specific misinformation not only through the media, but also fact-checking initiatives. Examples include conspiracy theories about the fire in Notre-Dame Cathedral, hoaxes about alleged refugees in Cheb, Czech Television journalist Marek Wollner and MP Olga Richterová, and the case of the dubious non-profit organization International Children's Cross. The analysis of these cases is conducted through a mixed research model: Data collection is carried out by a quantitative method, while working with them, qualitative methods associated with grounded theory are applied. The aim is to define and describe the forms that the media give to misinformation in their outputs, and to determine in which cases...

El periodismo siempre ha necesitado de la verificación de información para poder contar y desarrollar las historias que informa. Ahora, con el acceso a las redes sociales y la facilidad con la que la información viaja y es compartida, la necesidad de comprobar lo que sucede, se ha vuelto esencial en las redacciones para no dejarse llevar por los fake news. Esta investigación pretende contribuir a los estudios sobre el empleo del fact checking como estrategia de verificación de información. Además, busca proporcionar información teórica para analizar y explicar la manera en la que el fact checking y su escala de verificación han permitido que este pase a ser una estrategia de verificación de datos utilizada por distintos medios. Mis preguntas de investigación son: ¿Cuáles son las estrategias utilizadas por el fact checking para combatir los fake news? ¿Por qué es importante el fact checking durante las elecciones presidenciales?  y la hipótesis que manejo es la siguiente: En elecciones presidenciales, el volumen de información y la rapidez con la que esta viaja hace difícil su verificación. Es por eso que el fact checking es una estrategia válida para verificar la información durante elecciones presidenciales. Finalmente, he decidido utilizar como caso de estudio las elecciones presidenciales de Perú del año 2016 y México de 2018 porque ambos fueron objeto de verificación en sus respectivos países por los medios Ojo Público en Perú y Animal Político en México. / Journalism has always needed to verify the information it gets to write the histories it reports. Nowadays, the free access to social media and the way information without verification is being shared has made journalists to fact check what they write to stop the spread of fake news. This research aims to contribute to studies on the use of fact checking as an information verification strategy. In addition, it seeks to provide theoretical information to analyze and explain the way fact checking and its verification scale have allowed it to become a information verification strategy used by different media. My research questions are: What are the strategies used by fact checking to stop the spread of fake news? Why is fact checking important during presidential elections? The hypothesis is: in presidential elections, the volume of information and the speed with which it travels makes it difficult to verify. That is why fact checking is a good information verification strategy during presidential elections. Finally, I have decided to use the presidential elections of Peru in 2016 and Mexico in 2018 as a case study because both were verified in their respective countries by the news site: Ojo Publico in Peru and Animal Politico in Mexico. / Trabajo de investigación

In recent years, disinformation circulating the internet and especially social media has become a widespread concern. The urgency of the fake news problem lies in the fact that decisions that are taken on false or misleading information risk impacting democratic processes negatively. This is especially true during a global health crisis when the misinformation in question concerns scientific facts and informs the way people act in society. Focusing on the relational aspect of fake news, new insight and hypothesis generation can be explored with a relatively novel method, social network analysis. This research provides with an example of the method applied to political problems by analysing the misinformation and fact-checking diffusion network on the Italian Twitterverse during the second wave of COVID19. The network shows a tight core of misinformation and a peripheral fact-checking region approximating a spanning tree. Although some levels of polarization are observed, the resulting network shows no evidence of echo chambers that hinder interaction between the misinformation and the fact-checking clusters. Actor-level analysis revealed that the majority of the users interacting in the network are humans and that influential and active users share misinformation only. The findings of this work are presented to show how network analysis can contribute both mitigation strategies in particular and to social and political sciences research in general.

No description available.

De plus en plus de médias dans le monde disposent de rubriques ou chroniques dédiées au fact-checking. Elles visent notamment à vérifier la véracité de propos tenus par des responsables politiques. Cette pratique revisite celle née aux États-Unis dans les années 1920, qui consistait à vérifier de manière exhaustive et systématique les contenus avant parution. Ce fact-checking « moderne » incarne une stratégie des rédactions web – en dépit des crises structurelles et conjoncturelles – pour renouer avec la diffusion de contenus mieux vérifiés, ainsi que leur capacité à mettre à profit les outils numériques qui facilitent l’accès à l’information. À travers une trentaine d’entretiens semi-directifs avec des fact-checkeurs français et l’étude de 300 articles et chroniques issus de sept médias différents, ce travail de recherche analyse dans quelle mesure le fact-checking, en tant que genre journalistique, valorise une démarche crédible, mais révèle aussi, en creux, des manquements dans les pratiques professionnelles. Il examine, enfin, comment la promotion de contenus plus qualitatifs et l’éducation aux médias sont de nature à placer le fact-checking au cœur des stratégies éditoriales, destinées à regagner la confiance des publics. / A growing number of newsrooms around the world have established fact-checking headings or rubrics. They are dedicated to assess the veracity of claims, especially by politicians. This practice revisits an older fact-checking practice, born in the United States in the 1920’s and based on an exhaustive and systematic checking of magazines’ contents before publishing. The ‘modern’ version of fact-checking embodies both the willingness of online newsrooms to restore verified contents —despite the structural and economic crisis of the press— and their ability to capitalize on digital tools which enhance access to information. Through some thirty semi-structured interviews with French fact-checkers and the study of a sample of 300 articles and chronicles from seven media, this PhD thesis examines the extent to which fact-checking, as a journalistic genre, certainly valorizes a credible method, but also —and indirectly— reveals shortcomings in professional practices. Finally, it discusses how the promotion of more qualitative content, as well as media literacy, could place fact-checking at the heart of editorial strategies —the latter aiming at retrieving trust from the audience.

[pt] A credibilidade está em xeque de uma maneira global, o que ameaça a autoridade de instituições em geral, incluindo a imprensa, na chamada era da pósverdade. Por tratar com desimportância a verdade, os tempos atuais têm sido marcados pela circulação de informações falsas. É um tempo também conhecido como era pós-factual. A mesma sociedade em rede impulsionada pela internet com promessas de futuro mais horizontalizado viu nascer a plataformização algorítmica, a desqualificação da imprensa, a cultura da desinformação. É desse ambiente extremamente hostil e vulnerável para as instituições democráticas que partem as reflexões trazidas nesta tese. Tamanho é o nível de desinformação que hoje há uma proliferação de agências e serviços de checagem em diversos países. Por princípio, o fact-checking existe para apontar se discursos são verdadeiros ou falsos. No entanto, essas agências e serviços ganharam visibilidade e tornaram-se mais influentes no mercado jornalístico. O deslocamento do fact-checking para ambientes externos às redações de veículos de imprensa ou para espaços específicos nos veículos traz consigo uma pressuposição de que possa haver um deslocamento de uma das funções mais importantes do jornalismo: a checagem, que contribui para a construção de credibilidade e, consequentemente, funciona como sustentáculo da autoridade jornalística. Assim, o objetivo geral aqui foi entender qual o lugar ocupado pelas agências de checagem no universo do jornalismo brasileiro e que autoridade jornalística elas têm reivindicado. Uma questão central foi de que maneira o trabalho de fact-checking influencia a credibilidade/autoridade jornalística e se há – e em que medida – comprometimento dessa autoridade a partir do estabelecimento mercadológico dos serviços de checagem. Para isso, analisamos o conteúdo bruto de 677 posts sobre as eleições para presidência do Brasil feitos pelas agências Lupa e Aos Fatos e pelos serviços Fato ou Fake, Estadão Verifica e Folha Informações no período entre 16 de agosto e 30 de outubro de 2022, que compreende o dia do início da campanha eleitoral e o dia da votação do segundo turno das eleições. / [en] Credibility is being called into question in a global way, which threatens the authority of institutions in general, including the press, in the so-called post-truth era;. Due to its disregard for truth, the current times have been marked by the circulation of fake news. It is also a time known as the post-factual era. The same networked society driven by the internet with promises of a more horizontal future has witnessed the rise of algorithmic platformization, the disqualification of the press, and the culture of misinformation. It is from this extremely hostile and vulnerable environment for democratic institutions that the reflections brought in this thesis arise. The level of misinformation is such that today there is a proliferation of fact-checking agencies and services in various countries. In principle, fact-checking exists to determine whether speeches are true or false. However, these agencies and services have gained visibility and become more influential in the journalistic environment. The shift of fact-checking to external environments outside newsrooms or to specific spaces within news outlets carries with it an assumption that one of the most important functions of journalism, factchecking, can be displaced. This function contributes to the construction of credibility and, consequently, functions as the pillar of journalistic authority. Thus, the general objective here was to understand the place occupied by fact-checking agencies in the Brazilian journalism universe and the journalistic authority they have claimed. A central issue is how fact-checking work influences journalistic credibility/authority and whether there is - and to what extent – a compromise of this authority through the market establishment of fact-checking services. To this end, we analyzed the raw content of 677 posts about the presidential elections in Brazil made by the Lupa and Aos Fatos agencies and the Fato ou Fake, Estadão Verifica, and Folha Informações services in the period between August 16 and October 30, 2022, which includes the day campaign started and the day of the second round of voting in the elections.

Following the events that saw Russia operating in the Ukrainian information space as well as on the ground, concern for hybrid threats and targeted propaganda campaigns has grown in the world and especially in Europe. Allegations of foreign involvement in electoral campaigns within liberal democracies have drawn even more attention to the matter and have hastened plans of action to fight hybrid threats in the European Union and the Eastern Partnership. In theregion, one of the priorities at all levels of governance is to counteract foreign-sourced propaganda campaigns that make use of disinformation. These disinformation-fighting strategies include the strategical use of fact-checking practices. Fact-checkingas a branch of journalism, though, has great potential for being weaponised and used as a vehicle for institutional propaganda, especially when absorbed within the domain of strategic communication. This research offers a case study of EUvsDisinfo, the fact-checking project started by the European External Action Service, to explore its weaknesses as a fact-checking organisation and deconstruct its activity in terms of propaganda analysis. The research employs mixed qualitative methods to show how the project falls short of its ideal role and its function as a fact-checker. Without any value judgement, EUvsDisinfo is exposed as a potential platform for the dissemination of hegemonic narratives or (counter)propaganda in the West and in particular in the European Union. The case study is meant to be a way of developing research on the possible existence of institutional (counter)propaganda in liberal democracies, which is heavily underresearched in present times.

[ES] En tiempos recientes, el desarrollo de las redes sociales y de las agencias de noticias han traído nuevos retos y amenazas a la web. Estas amenazas han llamado la atención de la comunidad investigadora en Procesamiento del Lenguaje Natural (PLN) ya que están contaminando las plataformas de redes sociales. Un ejemplo de amenaza serían las noticias falsas, en las que los usuarios difunden y comparten información falsa, inexacta o engañosa. La información falsa no se limita a la información verificable, sino que también incluye información que se utiliza con fines nocivos. Además, uno de los desafíos a los que se enfrentan los investigadores es la gran cantidad de usuarios en las plataformas de redes sociales, donde detectar a los difusores de información falsa no es tarea fácil. Los trabajos previos que se han propuesto para limitar o estudiar el tema de la detección de información falsa se han centrado en comprender el lenguaje de la información falsa desde una perspectiva lingüística. En el caso de información verificable, estos enfoques se han propuesto en un entorno monolingüe. Además, apenas se ha investigado la detección de las fuentes o los difusores de información falsa en las redes sociales. En esta tesis estudiamos la información falsa desde varias perspectivas. En primer lugar, dado que los trabajos anteriores se centraron en el estudio de la información falsa en un entorno monolingüe, en esta tesis estudiamos la información falsa en un entorno multilingüe. Proponemos diferentes enfoques multilingües y los comparamos con un conjunto de baselines monolingües. Además, proporcionamos estudios sistemáticos para los resultados de la evaluación de nuestros enfoques para una mejor comprensión. En segundo lugar, hemos notado que el papel de la información afectiva no se ha investigado en profundidad. Por lo tanto, la segunda parte de nuestro trabajo de investigación estudia el papel de la información afectiva en la información falsa y muestra cómo los autores de contenido falso la emplean para manipular al lector. Aquí, investigamos varios tipos de información falsa para comprender la correlación entre la información afectiva y cada tipo (Propaganda, Trucos / Engaños, Clickbait y Sátira). Por último, aunque no menos importante, en un intento de limitar su propagación, también abordamos el problema de los difusores de información falsa en las redes sociales. En esta dirección de la investigación, nos enfocamos en explotar varias características basadas en texto extraídas de los mensajes de perfiles en línea de tales difusores. Estudiamos diferentes conjuntos de características que pueden tener el potencial de ayudar a discriminar entre difusores de información falsa y verificadores de hechos. / [CA] En temps recents, el desenvolupament de les xarxes socials i de les agències de notícies han portat nous reptes i amenaces a la web. Aquestes amenaces han cridat l'atenció de la comunitat investigadora en Processament de Llenguatge Natural (PLN) ja que estan contaminant les plataformes de xarxes socials. Un exemple d'amenaça serien les notícies falses, en què els usuaris difonen i comparteixen informació falsa, inexacta o enganyosa. La informació falsa no es limita a la informació verificable, sinó que també inclou informació que s'utilitza amb fins nocius. A més, un dels desafiaments als quals s'enfronten els investigadors és la gran quantitat d'usuaris en les plataformes de xarxes socials, on detectar els difusors d'informació falsa no és tasca fàcil. Els treballs previs que s'han proposat per limitar o estudiar el tema de la detecció d'informació falsa s'han centrat en comprendre el llenguatge de la informació falsa des d'una perspectiva lingüística. En el cas d'informació verificable, aquests enfocaments s'han proposat en un entorn monolingüe. A més, gairebé no s'ha investigat la detecció de les fonts o els difusors d'informació falsa a les xarxes socials. En aquesta tesi estudiem la informació falsa des de diverses perspectives. En primer lloc, atès que els treballs anteriors es van centrar en l'estudi de la informació falsa en un entorn monolingüe, en aquesta tesi estudiem la informació falsa en un entorn multilingüe. Proposem diferents enfocaments multilingües i els comparem amb un conjunt de baselines monolingües. A més, proporcionem estudis sistemàtics per als resultats de l'avaluació dels nostres enfocaments per a una millor comprensió. En segon lloc, hem notat que el paper de la informació afectiva no s'ha investigat en profunditat. Per tant, la segona part del nostre treball de recerca estudia el paper de la informació afectiva en la informació falsa i mostra com els autors de contingut fals l'empren per manipular el lector. Aquí, investiguem diversos tipus d'informació falsa per comprendre la correlació entre la informació afectiva i cada tipus (Propaganda, Trucs / Enganys, Clickbait i Sàtira). Finalment, però no menys important, en un intent de limitar la seva propagació, també abordem el problema dels difusors d'informació falsa a les xarxes socials. En aquesta direcció de la investigació, ens enfoquem en explotar diverses característiques basades en text extretes dels missatges de perfils en línia de tals difusors. Estudiem diferents conjunts de característiques que poden tenir el potencial d'ajudar a discriminar entre difusors d'informació falsa i verificadors de fets. / [EN] In the recent years, the development of social media and online news agencies has brought several challenges and threats to the Web. These threats have taken the attention of the Natural Language Processing (NLP) research community as they are polluting the online social media platforms. One of the examples of these threats is false information, in which false, inaccurate, or deceptive information is spread and shared by online users. False information is not limited to verifiable information, but it also involves information that is used for harmful purposes. Also, one of the challenges that researchers have to face is the massive number of users in social media platforms, where detecting false information spreaders is not an easy job. Previous work that has been proposed for limiting or studying the issue of detecting false information has focused on understanding the language of false information from a linguistic perspective. In the case of verifiable information, approaches have been proposed in a monolingual setting. Moreover, detecting the sources or the spreaders of false information in social media has not been investigated much. In this thesis we study false information from several aspects. First, since previous work focused on studying false information in a monolingual setting, in this thesis we study false information in a cross-lingual one. We propose different cross-lingual approaches and we compare them to a set of monolingual baselines. Also, we provide systematic studies for the evaluation results of our approaches for better understanding. Second, we noticed that the role of affective information was not investigated in depth. Therefore, the second part of our research work studies the role of the affective information in false information and shows how the authors of false content use it to manipulate the reader. Here, we investigate several types of false information to understand the correlation between affective information and each type (Propaganda, Hoax, Clickbait, Rumor, and Satire). Last but not least, in an attempt to limit its spread, we also address the problem of detecting false information spreaders in social media. In this research direction, we focus on exploiting several text-based features extracted from the online profile messages of those spreaders. We study different feature sets that can have the potential to help to identify false information spreaders from fact checkers. / Ghanem, BHH. (2020). On the Detection of False Information: From Rumors to Fake News [Tesis doctoral]. Universitat Politècnica de València. https://doi.org/10.4995/Thesis/10251/158570 / TESIS