As fake news em um contexto de pandemia pelo Coronavírus: categorização temática de notícias a partir de uma ferramenta de fact-checking

Abstract

Considering the increasingly daily nature of fake news nowadays, the goal of this paper was to provide a thematic categorization of COVID-19 news regarding the Brazilian universe. So a fact-checking tool: Fato ou Fake was used to obtain the research corpus which consisted of 396 news categorized as #FAKE, leading to categories that are not mutually exclusive of form (Message, Image, Video, Audio, Letter, Poem) and of content (Daily life, Economy, Foreign matter, Public figure, Politics, Official pronouncements, Recommendations, Health). The results have shown that there is prevalence of Messages, Videos and Images regarding the format of the news shared through social networks and messaging apps and the following most recurrent categories of content: Health, Daily Life, Public figure and Foreign matter. Chronologically, most of the news prevailed at the beginning of the pandemic, since there was still lack of knowledge about the virus and people were not fully aware of its dangers. In that sense, fake news is a threat to the democratic state and the development of science, it should be the object of specific attention by information professionals whose deeds consist of checking the origin of the information received, organized and transmitted by them, as well as teaching patrons on how to properly use fact-checking tools.