Publication
The toll of fighting misinformation: precarity in fact-checking work
| dc.contributor.author | Roberts, Jessica | |
| dc.contributor.author | Koliska, Michael | |
| dc.date.accessioned | 2025-09-08T13:16:26Z | |
| dc.date.available | 2025-09-08T13:16:26Z | |
| dc.date.issued | 2025-06-27 | |
| dc.description.abstract | Stand-alone fact-checking organizations are a relatively recent addition to the journalistic genre, linked to the rapid adoption of social media and a concurrent rise in fake news, misleading, and false information shared on social media sites. Fact-checking organizations around the world increasingly share norms, practices, and epistemologies, suggesting a growing institutionalization of fact-checking. These institutional similarities suggest that fact-checkers may also share similar professional challenges. To better understand the challenges, the effects of dealing with those challenges, and the ways fact-checkers cope with those effects, this study draws on interviews with 51 fact-checkers working at 41 fact-checking organizations from around the world. Findings suggest that fact-checkers face precarity on multiple levels. Fact-checking work itself presents a challenge as many fact-checkers expressed frustration and despair at the recurring falsehoods or “zombie” misinformation they had to debunk, and others are exposed to misinformation that includes upsetting graphic images that impact fact-checkers’ mental health. Additionally, fact-checkers are frequently attacked by audiences and public figures, such as politicians, even as they face financial challenges to organizational survival. Participants in the study shared a number of strategies to prevent, mitigate, or cope with the worst psychological effects, but the findings point to a need to more systematically address the precarity of fact-checking work. | eng |
| dc.identifier.citation | Roberts, J., & Koliska, M. (in press). The toll of fighting misinformation: precarity in fact-checking work. Journalism. https://doi.org/10.1177/14648849251355817 | |
| dc.identifier.doi | 10.1177/14648849251355817 | |
| dc.identifier.eid | 105013229875 | |
| dc.identifier.issn | 1464-8849 | |
| dc.identifier.other | 5c083d07-2b9c-434d-a453-209af0439175 | |
| dc.identifier.uri | http://hdl.handle.net/10400.14/54751 | |
| dc.identifier.wos | 001518034800001 | |
| dc.language.iso | eng | |
| dc.peerreviewed | yes | |
| dc.rights.uri | http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ | |
| dc.subject | Fact-checking | |
| dc.subject | Journalism (profession) | |
| dc.subject | Mental health | |
| dc.subject | Misinformation | |
| dc.subject | Precarity | |
| dc.title | The toll of fighting misinformation: precarity in fact-checking work | eng |
| dc.type | research article | |
| dspace.entity.type | Publication | |
| oaire.citation.title | Journalism | |
| oaire.version | http://purl.org/coar/version/c_970fb48d4fbd8a85 |
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