Assessing information quality at the heart of BIP presentations at the XIV Sopcom Congress

The three working groups of the Barometer for Information Quality (BIP) were part of the programme of communications at the XIV Sopcom Congress: Communication and Time, held at the University of Beira Interior in Covilhã from 9 to 11 February.
The first presentation, by the advertising information group (Ana Duarte Melo and Sara Balonas), took place on the first day of the congress. It addressed the importance of this type of information and the need to assess it, highlighting that “information quality decisively contributes to the legitimacy of advertising activity and its effectiveness in the contemporary economic system”. From this perspective, the process of defining indicators to assess the quality of advertising information was emphasised, and these indicators are currently being submitted to a panel of experts using the Delphi method. Contemporary challenges were also noted, such as the need to strengthen advertising literacy and the focus on brand authenticity and transparency, which make the evaluation of information quality paramount.
The institutional information group (Inês Mendes, Gisiela Klein, Rita Araújo, and José Gabriel Andrade), which participated in a parallel session on 10 February, discussed the application of the Delphi method to previously defined indicators for assessing institutional information quality and the development of a final assessment instrument. The results of applying the instrument to the expert panel were presented, along with the need to conduct three rounds of consultation due to a lack of consensus on six indicators (after the first round) and three indicators (after the second round). It was also clarified that the instrument will be made available to the community in the near future.
Finally, the work on assessing the quality of journalistic information (Luís Miguel Loureiro, Ana Filipa Gomes, Joel Felizes, and Tiago Estêvão) was presented on the last day of the congress. This session highlighted the scope and objectives of the Barometer for Information Quality, as well as the path towards defining an instrument to assess journalistic information quality, which has already begun the validation process through the Delphi method.
The presentations generated interest among participants in the respective parallel sessions, fostering debate on information quality assessment, the application of the Delphi method, and the Barometer’s work.

Machine Translation Post-Editing: Anabela Delgado

Photography: Inês Mendes