Fighting Misperceptions and Doubting Journalists’ Objectivity: A Review of Fact-checking Literature
| Date | 01 August 2019 |
| DOI | 10.1177/1478929918786852 |
| Published date | 01 August 2019 |
| Subject Matter | State of the Art |
https://doi.org/10.1177/1478929918786852
Political Studies Review
2019, Vol. 17(3) 296 –309
© The Author(s) 2018
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DOI: 10.1177/1478929918786852
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Fighting Misperceptions
and Doubting Journalists’
Objectivity: A Review of
Fact-checking Literature
Sakari Nieminen1 and Lauri Rapeli2
Abstract
Fact checkers evaluate the truthfulness of political claims appearing in public. The practice has
increased enormously in recent years. This review analyses research concerning political fact-
checking; it presents what kind of studies have been made about fact-checking and introduces
their main findings. Most of the literature focuses either on fact-checking as a profession or on
its corrective potential. Research about the effectiveness of fact-checking offers mixed results:
some find that fact-checking reduces misperceptions, others that corrections are often ineffective.
It is also disputed whether fact checkers are consistent in their conclusions and whether their
methods are reliable. Moreover, the literature is overwhelmingly focused in the US context.
Keywords
fact-checking, journalism, literature review, political science
Accepted: 6 June 2018
Introduction
Fact-checking is a practice that evaluates the accuracy of political claims appearing in
public, for example, in politicians’ speeches. In the US, from where much of the fact-
checking literature originates, the evaluation is typically performed by journalists, based
on various documented sources. The industry has grown enormously in the 2010s.
According to Duke Reporters’ Lab, the number of active fact-checking organizations has
grown from 44 in 2014 to 114 in 2017 (Stencel, 2017). Fact-checking has become a staple
part of US political journalism (Graves, 2016). Many organizations today carry out this
activity on a full-time basis, not just during elections.
Although fact-checking is a common feature in the US political media, it has also taken
notable steps in several other countries (see Mantzarlis, 2015). Whereas fact-checking in the
1Faculty of Social Sciences, University of Turku, Turku, Finland
2Åbo Akademi University, Åbo, Finland
Corresponding author:
Lauri Rapeli, Åbo Akademi University, ASA A4, 20500 Åbo, Finland.
Email: lauri.rapeli@abo.fi
786852PSW0010.1177/1478929918786852Political Studies ReviewNieminen and Rapeli
research-article2018
State of the Art
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