Parliamentary discourse and fact-checkers: Strategies of verification and political agenda

Abstract

Disinformation, a pervasive issue in contemporary society, significantly influences citizens’ political decision-making. In response, fact-checking has emerged as a prominent movement, striving to enhance journalistic standards. Although this trend has sparked substantial academic research, only a few studies have thoroughly examined the impact of these journalistic practices on society. Moreover, while fact-checking agencies monitor parliamentary messages, research on the interplay between fact-checkers and legislative activity remains in its infancy. This research addresses the role of fact-checkers in the context of parliamentary disinformation in Spain and their presence in the speeches of MPs, as well as the importance given by fact-checking agencies themselves to parliamentary speeches and the perception citizens have when discussing disinformation. We are interested in knowing what presence they have in parliamentary speeches, what importance the fact-checkers themselves give to parliamentary speeches and what perception citizens have of them when disinformation in parliament is discussed. To this aim, we propose a mixed methodological approach in three phases: (1) documentary analysis of disinformation published in the Bulletins of Congress and the Spanish Parliament, as well as in the speeches made by the Joint Commission on National Security; (2) in-depth interviews with three journalists from the main Spanish verification agencies working on parliamentary activity: Newtral, Maldita and Efe Verifica; (3) citizen focus groups to address different questions about the ecosystem of information disinformation in Spain. The results show growing attention to disinformation in the parliamentary context; verifiers occupy a relevant space in the political discourse, even replacing mentions of traditional journalists when discussing disinformation, and this contrasts with the lack of recognition by citi zens who, despite referring to it as a problem for democracy, barely mention the work of verification agencies in their discourse.