True or False: Studying the Work Practices of Professional Fact-Checkers

Micallef, Nicholas; Armacost, Vivienne; Memon, Nasir; Patil, Sameer

doi:10.1145/3512974

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True or False: Studying the Work Practices of Professional Fact-Checkers

Nicholas Micallef

, Vivienne Armacost, Nasir Memon, Sameer Patil

Proceedings of the ACM on Human-Computer Interaction, Volume: 6, Issue: CSCW1, Pages: 1 - 44

Swansea University Author: Nicholas Micallef

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DOI (Published version): 10.1145/3512974

Abstract

Misinformation has developed into a critical societal threat that can lead to disastrous societal consequences. Although fact-checking plays a key role in combating misinformation, relatively little research has empirically investigated work practices of professional fact-checkers. To address this g...

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Published in:	Proceedings of the ACM on Human-Computer Interaction
ISSN:	2573-0142
Published:	Association for Computing Machinery (ACM) 2022
Online Access:	Check full text
URI:	https://cronfa.swan.ac.uk/Record/cronfa60585
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first_indexed	2022-07-22T13:48:02Z
last_indexed	2023-01-13T19:20:49Z
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spelling	2022-10-31T14:55:47.7616654 v2 60585 2022-07-21 True or False: Studying the Work Practices of Professional Fact-Checkers 1cc4c84582d665b7ee08fb16f5454671 0000-0002-2683-8042 Nicholas Micallef Nicholas Micallef true false 2022-07-21 SCS Misinformation has developed into a critical societal threat that can lead to disastrous societal consequences. Although fact-checking plays a key role in combating misinformation, relatively little research has empirically investigated work practices of professional fact-checkers. To address this gap, we conducted semi-structured interviews with 21 fact-checkers from 19 countries. The participants reported being inundated with information that needs filtering and prioritizing prior to fact-checking. The interviews surfaced a pipeline of practices fragmented across disparate tools that lack integration. Importantly, fact-checkers lack effective mechanisms for disseminating the outcomes of their efforts which prevents their work from fully achieving its potential impact. We found that the largely manual and labor intensive nature of current fact-checking practices is a barrier to scale. We apply these findings to propose a number of suggestions that can improve the effectiveness, efficiency, scale, and reach of fact-checking work and its outcomes. Journal Article Proceedings of the ACM on Human-Computer Interaction 6 CSCW1 1 44 Association for Computing Machinery (ACM) 2573-0142 Fact-checking, fact-checker, journalism, work practices, misinformation, disinformation, social media 30 3 2022 2022-03-30 10.1145/3512974 COLLEGE NANME Computer Science COLLEGE CODE SCS Swansea University Another institution paid the OA fee 2022-10-31T14:55:47.7616654 2022-07-21T16:07:07.9022934 Faculty of Science and Engineering School of Mathematics and Computer Science - Computer Science Nicholas Micallef 0000-0002-2683-8042 1 Vivienne Armacost 2 Nasir Memon 3 Sameer Patil 4 60585__24694__b1b52c023375424ea644f72b2ab1b58b.pdf 3512974.pdf 2022-07-21T16:10:56.8332427 Output 1647291 application/pdf Version of Record true © 2022 Copyright held by the owner/author(s). This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike International 4.0 License. true eng https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/
title	True or False: Studying the Work Practices of Professional Fact-Checkers
spellingShingle	True or False: Studying the Work Practices of Professional Fact-Checkers Nicholas Micallef
title_short	True or False: Studying the Work Practices of Professional Fact-Checkers
title_full	True or False: Studying the Work Practices of Professional Fact-Checkers
title_fullStr	True or False: Studying the Work Practices of Professional Fact-Checkers
title_full_unstemmed	True or False: Studying the Work Practices of Professional Fact-Checkers
title_sort	True or False: Studying the Work Practices of Professional Fact-Checkers
author_id_str_mv	1cc4c84582d665b7ee08fb16f5454671
author_id_fullname_str_mv	1cc4c84582d665b7ee08fb16f5454671_***_Nicholas Micallef
author	Nicholas Micallef
author2	Nicholas Micallef Vivienne Armacost Nasir Memon Sameer Patil
format	Journal article
container_title	Proceedings of the ACM on Human-Computer Interaction
container_volume	6
container_issue	CSCW1
container_start_page	1
publishDate	2022
institution	Swansea University
issn	2573-0142
doi_str_mv	10.1145/3512974
publisher	Association for Computing Machinery (ACM)
college_str	Faculty of Science and Engineering
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department_str	School of Mathematics and Computer Science - Computer Science{{{_:::_}}}Faculty of Science and Engineering{{{_:::_}}}School of Mathematics and Computer Science - Computer Science
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description	Misinformation has developed into a critical societal threat that can lead to disastrous societal consequences. Although fact-checking plays a key role in combating misinformation, relatively little research has empirically investigated work practices of professional fact-checkers. To address this gap, we conducted semi-structured interviews with 21 fact-checkers from 19 countries. The participants reported being inundated with information that needs filtering and prioritizing prior to fact-checking. The interviews surfaced a pipeline of practices fragmented across disparate tools that lack integration. Importantly, fact-checkers lack effective mechanisms for disseminating the outcomes of their efforts which prevents their work from fully achieving its potential impact. We found that the largely manual and labor intensive nature of current fact-checking practices is a barrier to scale. We apply these findings to propose a number of suggestions that can improve the effectiveness, efficiency, scale, and reach of fact-checking work and its outcomes.
published_date	2022-03-30T04:18:49Z
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True or False: Studying the Work Practices of Professional Fact-Checkers

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