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Analyzing divergent methodologies for political fact checking: United States and South Korea
Author(s) -
Choi Wonchan,
Haigh Maria
Publication year - 2019
Publication title -
proceedings of the association for information science and technology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.193
H-Index - 14
ISSN - 2373-9231
DOI - 10.1002/pra2.112
Subject(s) - politics , presidential system , government (linguistics) , political science , fake news , public relations , psychology , law , sociology , media studies , linguistics , philosophy
In this work in progress, we explore methods employed by professional journalists to fact‐check political claims and debunk inaccurate (“fake”) news stories. We content‐analyzed 150 articles evaluating political claims and debunking fake news published by two media companies, the Washington Post (United States) and JTBC (South Korea), during the periods surrounding the recent presidential elections in their respective countries. Overall, the most common types of claims evaluated included false claims made by politicians or political groups about their opponents' positions and numerical and nonnumerical facts. The most frequently used methods for debunking such false claims included consulting with an independent expert in the given topic domain and checking government statistics or documents. There were some variations in the types of false claims focused and debunking methods used between the two fact‐checking organizations.