Fact-checking: Strengthening democracy through verifying

Abstract

The spread of fake news by various actors – for example, on social media platforms – has posed an enormous challenge to journalism. To counteract the targeted and manipulative spread of fake news, “fact-checking” units have been established over the past ten years in various media companies. Also, with the help of social listening tools, they detect and expose fake news. According to the JoIn-DemoS project, fact-checking is viewed as an important innovation in journalism in Germany, Spain, and the United Kingdom. The innovation potential of fact-checking lies at the level of the journalistic format as well as the editorial organization.