Fact-Checking and Journalism Discourse: The Perceived Influence of Data-Driven Non-Profits in Africa (Top Student Paper)

• In Event: Journalism’s Truth Claims

Abstract

A series of independent data-driven organizations are emerging to fact-check legacy news media as well as other news sources. This study examines how these actors advocate and adopt journalistic practice and the perceived impact they have on news journalism. We draw our data from in-depth interviews with 14 practitioners working in three organizations—Code for Africa, Open Up and Africa Check—that are currently leading data and fact-checking operations in Sub-Saharan Africa. Our findings show that while these non-journalistic actors are at the periphery of news media as institutions, their operations, activities and goals are at the heart of journalistic discourse. In their strategies, they emerge as advocates of data practices and activists seeking to reformulate fact-checking processes within news media.

Authors

• David Kimutai Cheruiyot, Karlstad U

• Raul Ferrer Conill, Karlstad U

• Stefan Baack, University of Groningen