American Presidential Elections: Relevance Theory Analysis in Fato ou Fake News Checkings

Abstract

Understanding the logical-cognitive functioning in the elaboration and interpretation of news verification is essential in an information ecosystem undermined by the dissemination of false content. So, using the relevance-theoretic descriptive-explanatory architecture, we analyze ostensive-inferential processes in checks produced by Projeto Fato ou Fake (Fact or Fake Project) of suspicious content in sixteen news about the American elections shared on social media in Portuguese in November 2020. Evidence suggests that these news works as assertive premises serving fallacious conclusions artfully designed by modus ponens: they are formally valid and materially false arguments. By using the formula “it’s #fake that P” in headlines, journalists pay the burden of reiterating and denying these premises. As a result, they produce potential antecedent-denial fallacies. Since verifying a piece of news to be false does not necessarily imply that the respective conclusion is false, the cunning conclusion can escape the domain of checking.