Debunking news as a journalistic genre: from the inverted pyramid to a circular writing model

Abstract

This research identifies the common elements present in debunking news that define this sort of information as a new journalistic genre. For this purpose, after a standard literature review related to journalistic genres, fake news, fact-checking, and the state of journalism, a qualitative methodology consisting of a content analysis of 60 debunk news from politifact.com (the United States) and maldita.es (Spain) and interviews with editors (5) of the fact-checking platforms were carried out. Findings indicate a circular writing structure with common elements present in debunk news: A headline that points out and stresses the falsehood; a first paragraph that presents the origin of the disinformation; a body of the text that exposes the evidence found when analyzing the facts; and finally, a closing paragraph, that is the final verdict, that asserts whether the news is true or false, underlines the truth, and labels the credibility of the information.