Fact-checking: The Future of Journalism?
E4) Fact-checking: The Future of Journalism?
Since last year, we have heard a lot about fake news. Fact-checking items have multiplied in the North American and European media. Science still has little place in this trend given that most of fact-check articles analyze political statements or rumors gone viral on the Internet. However, the subject matter for fact checking science-related stories is rich, from miracle cancer cures to an adolescent who claimed to have discovered a Mayan city.
What if this new interest could encourage the media to hire more science journalists? At a time when young adults can barely distinguish true from false on social networks and when some authors claim we have entered a “post-fact era,” shouldn’t scientific information rank at the top of these fact-checking efforts?
This panel will offer an overview of the recent and worrying phenomenon. It will bring together representatives of various initiatives to learn from their experiences and their trials and errors. The panelists’ perspectives, which will not focus solely on science journalism, will allow an understanding of the different contributions science journalism could make to the fact-checking universe and the ways that the general news media could find such expertise in their interest.
Session Video
