Understanding Fact-Checking as a Tool to Promote Media Literacy in The Brazilian and Portuguese Context

Abstract

The spread of many false information, commonly called fake news, also gave rise to several strategies to combat this problem in the context of digital media. Fact-checking, for example, can be a valuable tool for promoting media literacy if used in educational contexts. The objective of this study is to understand which strategies are already being used in the promotion of media literacy and in the combat of disinformation and to propose a more active and democratic performance by the checking or fact-checking agencies (term in English and that we will use in the construction of this article) in the Brazilian and Portuguese context. Methodology: A bibliographic review was carried out on articles selected from the search for the keywords "fact-checking" "media literacy" and "media literacy" in three databases (Google Scholar; Communication Abstracts; Library & Information Science Source). Results: It was noticed that there are already actions to promote media literacy with the use of checking, only much more in the North American context. However, of the articles found, in Portuguese, there were none that dealt with the specific theme of fack-checking as a tool to promote media literacy. An important fact is the large number of publications in English in view of the insufficient production in Portuguese, which leads us to an almost absence of academic research in relation to the promotion of media literacy through the checking agencies, although there are effective actions in countries Portuguese-speaking countries such as Brazil and Portugal.