Content analysis of fact checking and TV news during 2021: data

This dataset is based on content analysis of news media across different UK public service media organisations between April and July 2021 with a focus on the way political claims were scrutinised across broadcast news and fact-checking platforms. 

To establish a comparison between online fact-checking and broadcast news, we first constructed and examined a comprehensive sample of fact-checking items systematically retrieved from the top three UK fact-checking organisations between 20 April – 31 July 2021. This resulted in N=355 items across BBC Reality Check (N=118, 33.2%), C4 FactCheck (N=25, 7%) and the independent organisation Full Fact (N=212, 59,7%). The sample of N=355 online fact-checking items represented the base on which we built our comparative content analysis study of fact-checking and broadcast coverage of claims. The chosen timeframe reflects a period of coverage which was no longer heavily and almost entirely driven by the coronavirus pandemic – although the significant persistence of pandemic coverage provided potentially interesting case studies with regards to disinformation. Each news item published on the platforms within the sampled period (including weekends) was included for analysis. 

To establish a comparison between fact-checking and television news, a broadcast sample was constructed with the purpose to identify potentially matching political claims featuring in both broadcast and fact-checking news. This would then allow a comparative assessment of how much scrutiny every claim received on broadcast and online coverage. To construct the broadcast sample, all stories reported by the online fact-checkers (BBC Reality Check, C4 FactCheck and Full Fact)  within the sample period (N=355) were searched for on Box of Broadcasts across BBC News at Ten and Channel 4 News bulletins on the same day and across the preceding and following week of coverage. Only those TV news items which matched the story reported on the fact-checking articles were included in the sample. This was carried out in order to achieve a sample of the same stories between the two platforms of online fact-checks and televised news broadcasts. We could then subsequently establish whether the same political claim featured in both fact-checking and broadcast and finally examine how the claim was scrutinised across different platforms.