Antena 3 Noticias, a robust strategy for combating fake news

Antena 3 Noticias follows a trusted strategy for fighting fake news based on its commitment to rigour and truthful information. The newsrooms combat hoaxes and disinformation on a daily basis by working hard to fact-check all information received, processed and broadcast. In 2023, a fact-checking course was delivered to our journalists, giving them useful knowledge to help screen and verify the information received through the Group’s various communication channels.

Aside from the work traditionally carried out within the newsroom, the channel is also making efforts to keep up this fight across social media platforms, which are inherently vulnerable to fake news and the like. In 2023, Antena 3 Noticias, under its brand #VerificaA3N, extended its fact-checking mechanisms to two new social media platforms: Instagram and TikTok. This broadened the scope of the work already being carried out on the accounts of Antena 3 Noticias, Espejo Público, Antena 3 Internacional and on the profiles of A3N Verifica on Facebook and Twitter.

• The strategy followed by Antena 3 Noticias to fight fake news on social media pursues the following objectives:
• Providing valuable, dynamic and interactive content.
• Reaching out to a younger audience that is especially sensitive to these issues.
• Becoming invested in the topics that are trending on both networks by creating our own specific content tailored to this younger target segment.
• Generating more impact by referring to URLs online to give users more context.
• Encouraging more active community participation.

These initiatives amassed a community of 439,700 people on Instagram and 147,000 people on TikTok. The most prominent topics trending on social media in 2023 and which Verifica A3N managed to debunk or raise awareness of included a level 5 alert of an imminent terrorist attack, scams targeting the elderly, the dangers of “say yes” phone calls, or the infamous WhatsApp scams. In this particular case, the campaign achieved more than two million views on TikTok and Instagram.

Atresmedia also took the fight against fake news to the digital realm, through ¿Lo hablamos?, a current affairs programme streamed live from the Antena 3 Noticias website. The programme also includes a Q&A section in which Antena 3 Noticias social media followers can ask the guests questions. Notably, the Verifica A3N brand has become a relevant element in the branded campaigns of Antena 3 Noticias.

For Antena 3 Noticias, fact-checking is a task that involves the entire newsroom. In 2023, Verifica A3N worked closely with the various units and especially with International in order to stop the dissemination of images and/or videos taken out of context, especially in certain sensitive scenarios such as the ongoing conflicts in Ukraine and the Middle East. This fact-checking is carried out through various mechanisms and applications, such as InVID and Fact Check Explorer.

In 2023, Antena 3 Noticias also teamed up with the IVERES project, which is working on an artificial intelligence tool to help journalists spot false information. The first phase of the project involved understanding the needs of the media, their processes and the tools they currently use to carry out their work. The overriding philosophy of the project is to create an artificial intelligence toolbox.

laSexta reaffirms its commitment to fact-checked information

Meanwhile, laSexta continues to fight against disinformation by spotting hoaxes and fake news. Not only did the Russia-Ukraine and Middle East conflicts generate considerable disinformation in 2023, so did political events such as elections, protests, investitures and the amnesty law, the earthquake in Morocco, droughts and heavy rainfall events, all of which were covered rigorously by laSexta, as a further show of its commitment to information, current affairs and accuracy.

laSexta has remained faithful to the truth, committed to viewpoint diversity and fact-checking, as it embraces the challenge of telling what genuinely happened from where it happened. The pillars of laSexta’s strategy are current affairs, information, analysis and investigation. It therefore has a broad selection of programmes to keep the audience informed and to stave off fake news. Notably, laSexta has various mechanisms for analysing the current political and economic panorama, which it offers to its viewers through programmes such as Al Rojo Vivo, laSexta Columna, laSexta Clave, laSexta Xplica and Más Vale Tarde.

laSexta relied on the valuable support of Newtral in 2023, the company widely acknowledged to have introduced fact-checking in Spain back in the day.