Getting It Right: Editors and the Fight for Fact….. Reinforcing Fact-Checking Principles in the Age of Disinformation By Azu Ishiekwene, Mass Communication Scholar, Editor-in-Chief, Leadership Newspaper.
March 5, 2022
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Posted by: Imoh Robert
New Media Skills
Don’t be reactive – take another look.
Confirm the source – who? What? When? Where? Cross-referencing – who else is talking about this? Establishing Consistency – do all the details match?
Contextualising Stories – do details support the narrative?
Deepening Connections
Fact-Checking initiatives, within and outside newsrooms, have been instrumental in combating disinformation especially in periods of considerable social upheaval. To develop efficient capabilities in Nigeria, editors must not only build dedicated fact-checking teams, those teams must be able to work with a cross-section of partners in civil society, academia and technology. We have examples from countries whose challenges are somewhat comparable to ours.
Reverso, a collaborative project between over a 100 media organizations, was created to produce and distribute fact-checks related to the 2019 Argentinian election.
In the same year, a similar collaborative project, Verificado.uy, took place in Uruguay. The initiative brought together over 127 partners.
Fact-checkers have also come together to combat disinformation surrounding Ukraine.
Why It Matters
In 2014, the International Fact-Checking Network hosted the first Global Fact-Checking Summit, which drew about 30 organizations dedicated to fact-checking. 5 years later in 2019, at the sixth instalment of the event, the number of attendees had risen to over 250, 60 of which, it’s important to note, were African-run organizations. While the term ‘Fake News’ has been popularised by US politics culture, the threat posed by mis- and disinformation is recognised as a global one and has seen committed, if undervalued, efforts across international media. This has serious implications for editors, who have retained to a large degree their traditional role as arbitrators of literary taste. Recent events such as the COVID 19 pandemic reveal just how critical the role is. The United Nations and the WHO have used the term ‘infodemic’ to raise awareness about how quickly fear-mongering, rumours and disinformation tactics are filling knowledge gaps. Disinformation is a matter of public safety.
What This Means
Editorial oversight is more vital than it’s ever been. A media culture influenced by hasty news cycles, reliance on paid advertising and the insistence on digestible weakens our vigilance.
Newsrooms must adapt to ever-evolving realities in how information is created and disseminated. The pervasiveness of user-generated content and the platforms which enable it intensify the scale and speed at which information spreads. There is often difficulty in distinguishing low from high quality information.
While ‘legacy’ media institutions could once rely on their reputation as longstanding sources of verifiable information, the parameters of credibility, expertise and trustworthiness are being constantly redrawn.
A thorough understanding of the Dark Web is essential in these times. The avenues available to bad faith actors for collaboration, resource sharing and strategising are many. They exist in ‘hidden’ parts of the Internet and oftentimes on sites you and I use, Facebook being an oft-cited example. Editors must learn to detect their tactics without amplifying them.
Revisiting The International Fact-Checking Network’s Code of Principles
A Commitment To Non-Partisanship And Fairness
Review claims from multiple angles.
Account for bias at every stage.
Look for vested interests. Who benefits?
A Commitment to Standards And Transparency of Sources
Barring exceptional cases, sources should be disclosed.
Consider source’s proximity to the issue. On what grounds is the source best placed to offer relevant information?
Diversity of voices
A Commitment To Transparency of Funding and Organization
Audiences should know how the organization, particular piece or project is funded and how this might influence the nature or/and direction of claims made.
A Commitment to Standards and Transparency of Methodology
Clarity about guidelines, processes and ethics that shape editorial work.
What tools and personnel are in use?
What priorities are accepted on what basis does this change depending on the story?
A Commitment to an Open and Honest Corrections Policy
Be upfront about errors when they are discovered.
Make proper acknowledgments if errors are pointed out by third party.
Use corrections as opportunity to close loopholes.
Final Note
Information disorder is a crisis that exacerbates all other crises. When bad information becomes as prevalent, persuasive, and persistent as good information, it creates a chain reaction of harm. ‘
Aspen Institute’s Commission for Information Disorder, 2021