Gaining Historical Perspective on Political Fact-Checking: The Experience of the United States

Abstract

Objective. This paper provides an historical perspective on the wide use of fake facts in modern American society, and the efforts of librarians, journalists, and others to scrutinize public discourse as well as printed and online materials in order to differentiate fake facts from truth. Results. The paper identifies six historical factors that influenced both the belief in truth as a value and the ability to carry out these evaluations: (1) the rise in various kinds of literacy and numeracy; (2) expansion of data-driven government; (3) the rise of scientific and social science research; (4) an expanding progressive sentiment to address social problems; (5) the transformation of the media to become fact-driven; and (6) the creation of a data and computing infrastructure robust enough to handle real-world problems. All six factors were in effect, at least in an incipient form, by the end of the nineteenth century.