Keyword – readers’ comments

Német, Szilvi:

”I can’t even fathom what a liberal fact-checker is”

This paper studies Hungary’s first dedicated fact-checking initiative, Lakmusz, in order to assess the public’s reactions to this project. It is based on a quantitative and content analysis of readers’ comments (N = 2,546) on two Facebook pages – those of Lakmusz and of 444.hu – where fact-checking articles by Lakmusz were posted simultaneously. Its findings suggest that the two audiences commonly challenged journalists’ verdicts on epistemological grounds; however, politicised views on their practices were more pronounced in the comment section of the fact-checking portal. Our findings also indicate that the acceptance of the genre improves when fact-checks are an integral part of the mainstream news agenda. On the downside, fact-checking articles also seem to provoke polarised political attitudes among news commenters being “in the know.”

Keywords: content analysis, fact-checking, independence, journalistic bias, mainstream media, readers’ comments