Fact-checking

Dren Gërguri, University of Prishtina, Kosovo
dren.gerguri@uni-pr.edu

Asta Zelenkauskaite, , Vilnius Tech, Lithuania & Drexel University, USA
az358@drexel.edu

Verification through systematic methods serves to check the accuracy and truthfulness of official statements made by public figures, politicians, or the media. The practice of fact-checking began to take shape in the United States during the early 1990s, emerging in response to political television advertisements that proliferated during election periods. At the initial stage fact-checkers dedicated their efforts to analysing deliberate exaggerations within television broadcast political announcements, particularly those intended to influence voters during election campaigns. By the mid-2020s. fact-checking organisations had expanded globally, and 170 organisations addressed both official statements and online misinformation and disinformation across many countries. The groups now actively engage with information coming from various unofficial sources, including social media posts and viral content, because these forms of unverified content spread quickly before people can validate or counter them. There are two basic steps that need to be followed in the factual verification process: identification of claims to be evaluated and gathering credible evidence for claims to be measured for accuracy. Some facts may consist of government documents or speeches, or expert-driven reports; in this regard the facts are taken as acceptable evidence in the fact checking process. Fact-checking has dual functions which include fact correction but also functions to counter the false information that result from intentional disinformation as well as by accident through misinformation. In a world flooded with misinformation and disinformation, fact checking is one of main solutions, ensuring that the debate is taken out ofthe situations and a decision is made on the basis of info available to people in the era of information overload.

Keywords: fact-checking, verification, truth

Related Entries: Fact, Fake News/Misinformation, Objectivity

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