From Public Reason to Public Health

Professional Implications of the “Debunking Turn” in the Global Fact-Checking Field

Bibliographic Data

ID22010602
AuthorsLucas Graves (0000-0002-2980-7145, University of Wisconsin–Madison, corresponding author), Valérie Bélair-Gagnon (0000-0002-7756-1688, University of Minnesota), Rebekah Larsen (0000-0002-0884-6217, OsloMet – Oslo Metropolitan University)
Year2024
Volume12
Issue10
Pages1417-1436
Publication date2024-11-25
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueDigital Journalism (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 2167-0811 • E-ISSN: 2167-082X
PublisherInforma UK Limited (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1080/21670811.2023.2218454
OpenAlexW4380988535
LanguageEN
Citations received56
References cited39

The global field of fact-checking organizations has experienced a dramatic shift in focus since 2016, from checking claims by politicians and other public figures to policing viral misinformation on social networks. What practitioners call “debunking,” once a minor focus, now dominates the agenda of leading outlets and accounts for the bulk of fact-checks produced worldwide, driven in part by commercial partnerships between fact-checkers and platform companies. This study investigates what this sudden realignment means for fact-checkers themselves, drawing on interviews and meta-journalistic discourse to examine the impact on how these organizations assign value and draw boundaries in their growing transnational field. We highlight different discursive strategies fact-checkers use to explain the debunking turn, depending on their own field position, and show how shifting boundaries reflect wider concerns about autonomy from platform partners. We suggest that debunking discourse illustrates an incipient shift away from the “public reason” model implicit in journalism’s professional logic, to a more instrumental, “public health” model of newswork adapted to a digital media environment dominated by platform companies

Autonomy · Business · Journalism · Media studies · Misinformation · Political science · Public interest · Public relations · Sociology · Hate Speech and Cyberbullying Detection · Law · Media Studies and Communication · Misinformation and Its Impacts

Tools

Open DOIOpen Access