What is fact-checking?

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• ABOUT FACT CHECK

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Fact Check was Ballotpedia's fact-checking project that ran from October 2015 through October 2018. These pages have been archived.

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Fact-checking is a modern, identifiable category of journalism. Its goal is to provide accurate, unbiased analysis of statements made in public in order to correct public misperceptions and increase knowledge of important issues.

Modern fact-checking analyzes claims and rates them as true or false. Fact checkers may clarify their assessment of a claim by providing context and background information.

This type of fact-checking is different from the work done by fact checkers for publishers of nonfiction material. Historically, fact checkers ensured that the factual items in a text were correct: spelling of names, addresses, dates and so on.

In the 1980s and 1990s, fact-checking began to take on the particular meaning defined here. Early reporting that had the goal of fact-checking was referred to by the terms "adwatch" or "truth-squadding." With the creation of FactCheck.org in 2003, and the proliferation of other fact-checking sites, fact-checking came to be recognized as its own category of journalism.

Fact-checking analysis in the United States primarily targets political claims, but internet hoaxes, urban legends, social media memes and other statements are also subject to fact-checking.

There are many international fact-checking organizations.

What is political fact-checking?

The fact-checking of political claims is an integral part of media coverage of political news in the United States. Political fact-checking intends to assess the accuracy of political information as it is expressed in statements made by politicians and others. The goal is to prevent the repetition of false information that occurs when news organizations simply report what politicians say. Fact checkers want to increase their audience’s knowledge of important issues by examining whether the statement is factual or false and reporting on their findings. Political fact checkers seek to be accurate, unbiased and nonpartisan.

While some fact-checking organizations use a graphic representation of their assessment about the claim, such as PolitiFact's "Truth-O-Meter" or The Washington Post's Pinocchios, other organizations choose not to. Graphics depicting the level of truth or falsity of a claim are popular with viewers of websites such as PolitiFact, but some fact checkers think graphics oversimplify the assessment and add a layer of subjectivity to it, so they choose not to use them.

There are three major fact-checking organizations in the United States. FactCheck.org was the first fact-checking website, founded in 2003 in advance of the 2004 presidential election. PolitiFact and The Washington Post Fact Checker were both started in 2007 in advance of the 2008 presidential election. Other newspapers and news outlets in the United States also produce fact checks. There are political fact-checking organizations in many countries around the world.

Some political fact-checking organizations in the United States provide fact-checking policies on their websites, while others choose simply to state that they abide by "the best practices of both journalism and scholarship."

A standard fact check often follows this structural pattern:

• Statement or claim that will be investigated
  • Ideally, the claim is empirically verifiable.
• Explanation of the background and context in which the claim was made
  • The person or organization making the claim may be contacted for information about their source for the claim.
• Evaluation of the claim
  • What data supports or refutes the assertion?
• Identification and explanation of misleading aspects of the claim
• Conclusion about the claim being true or false

Fact-checking is a popular news category, but it is not without detractors. Fact checks provoke strong responses from readers, politicians and other news organizations.

Fact-checking can also influence politicians’ behavior. Politicians’ reactions to having one of their claims rated as false can range from ignoring the fact check to attacking the fact checker. Some use fact checks to attack their opponents or adjust their public statements so as not to become the subject of a fact check.

In addition to being scrutinized by the public, fact-checking is the subject of academic research. The Reporters' Lab at Duke University studies fact-checking. The American Press Institute's "Fact-Checking Project" provides training and tools aimed at improving fact-checking. The Poynter Institute established the International Fact-Checking Network to support and study international fact-checking.

See also

• FactCheck.org
• PolitiFact
• The Washington Post Fact Checker
• The Annenberg Public Policy Center
• The Poynter Institute
• Fact-checking organizations
• The methodologies of fact-checking
• International fact-checking sites
• Academic studies of political fact-checking

External links

• FactCheck.org
• PolitiFact.com
• The Washington Post Fact Checker
• The Fact-checking Project
• Duke Reporters'Lab