Disinformation and Fake News

a case Study on Jornal Nacional's Coverage during the 2024 Rio Grande do Sul flood.

Abstract

The purpose of this article is to verify how Jornal Nacional, from Rede Globo de Televisão, structured its news coverage in the face of disinformation and fake news during the floods in Rio Grande do Sul in 2024 and what strategies it adopted to preserve the credibility of the information. The study is limited to the most critical period of the flood, between May 6 and May 15, 2024. To this end, the specific objectives are to highlight the concept of news and the criteria of newsworthiness; understand the definition of disinformation and fake news in journalism; reflect on the role of journalism and the importance of fact-checking information; review the history of the object of analysis, in this case Jornal Nacional, from Rede Globo de Televisão; contextualize the flood that hit Rio Grande do Sul in 2024 and, finally, carry out the analysis of the JN programming and subsequently interview Tomás Absalão, JN's General Editor. The proposal is based on the ideas of Jorge (2008), Traquina (2005), Wolf (1987), Bucci (2022), Castilho (2022), Oliveira (2024), Campos (2018) and Bonner (2009). This study has a qualitative approach and exploratory objectives, as it included an interview with the editor-in-chief of JN, a bibliographical survey of scientific articles, books and magazines. The study included clippings from the news program's editions during the period mentioned. It was found that the news program's editorial selection was meticulous in the process of news values, selecting relevant facts, producing reports from reliable sources after extensive checking, and preserving the credibility of the information. In this way, JN structured its coverage to combat lies and distorted news spread at the time. Another principle was the humanization of the coverage, by highlighting those in need who had an active voice in the programming.