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The term “fake news” entered the public lexicon circa 2016, during the US presidential election, when the internet was flooded with inaccurate information. Now, as @vivianefairbank explains, fact-checking is on the rise. More here: http://thewalrus.ca/how-do-we-exit-the-post-truth-era/ 1/7
In 2014, there were fewer than sixty initiatives around the world focused exclusively on checking others’ claims. Today, there are more than 300. Read about the rise of fact-checking here: http://thewalrus.ca/how-do-we-exit-the-post-truth-era/ 2/7
The growing instinct to fact-check isn’t particular to journalists either: it’s part of a growing cultural movement of revision and debunking. Podcasts like @revhistpodcast and @yourewrongabout get listeners to think of well-known stories differently. http://thewalrus.ca/how-do-we-exit-the-post-truth-era/ 3/7
But what it means to fact-check has changed over the years. The standard was established by @TIME and @NewYorker in the early 1900s, when magazine fact checkers combed through stories before they were published. http://thewalrus.ca/how-do-we-exit-the-post-truth-era/ 4/7
Now, fact checkers often focus on scrutinizing public claims, such as politicians’ statements, and setting the record straight after the fact. Read the full story here: http://thewalrus.ca/how-do-we-exit-the-post-truth-era/ 5/7
But social science research is revealing that fact-checking alone won’t solve the fake news problem. New studies are finding that fake news is not only a problem of false or misleading information but also one of social bonding. http://thewalrus.ca/how-do-we-exit-the-post-truth-era/ 6/7
In fact, some researchers have found that the overwhelming majority of people who share disinformation online know full well that it’s inaccurate. So how do we fix that? Read @vivianefairbank’s full story to find out: http://thewalrus.ca/how-do-we-exit-the-post-truth-era/ 7/7
