(Re)constructing Professional Journalistic Practice in Mexico: Verificado’s Marketing of Legitimacy, Collaboration, and Pop Culture in Fact-Checking the 2018 Elections

Abstract

Although fact-checking websites for political news such as FactCheck.org, Politifact, and ProPublica are common in the United States, they are new in Mexico. Using textual analysis, this study examines the strategies used by Verificado 2018, a crowdsourced political fact-checking initiative generated during the largest election in Mexican history by news organizations, universities, and tech companies. Verificado 2018 emphasized legitimacy, collaboration, and critical humor to promote and engage users in fact-checking and viralizing reliable information.