Crowdsourced Fact Checking
from the seems-like-a-good-idea dept
We've pointed out in the past that people seem to really like it when the press actually fact checks, rather than simply acts as a stenographer to record what everyone has to say about an issue. But, of course, fact checking is time consuming and difficult work -- and, in the end, no professional fact checker is ever going to be able to fact check anything as effectively as a wider group of knowledgeable people. It's one of the reasons why we've always considered this site to be a discussion and community site, rather than a "journalism" site. We post our opinions based on what information is out there, and we fully expect an engaged audience to discuss things in the comments, adding additional details, or flat out correcting factual errors in the initial reports we relied on. It's part of the overall process.And, now it looks like some news organizations are looking to test out a more formalized version of this. The Poynter Institute and FactCheck.org are testing out a new system that crowdsources fact checking via its new Truthsquad effort. The idea is pretty much what you'd expect. The idea is to tap into the wider wisdom of the crowd to see if they can help break down various claims from politicians to see whether or not they're truthful or not. This isn't a total free-for-all, of course. It's simply asking the community for input and evidence.
Thank you for reading this Techdirt post. With so many things competing for everyone’s attention these days, we really appreciate you giving us your time. We work hard every day to put quality content out there for our community.
Techdirt is one of the few remaining truly independent media outlets. We do not have a giant corporation behind us, and we rely heavily on our community to support us, in an age when advertisers are increasingly uninterested in sponsoring small, independent sites — especially a site like ours that is unwilling to pull punches in its reporting and analysis.
While other websites have resorted to paywalls, registration requirements, and increasingly annoying/intrusive advertising, we have always kept Techdirt open and available to anyone. But in order to continue doing so, we need your support. We offer a variety of ways for our readers to support us, from direct donations to special subscriptions and cool merchandise — and every little bit helps. Thank you.
–The Techdirt Team
Filed Under: crowdsourced, fact checking, journalism
Companies: poynter
Reader Comments
Subscribe: RSS
View by: Time | Thread
And
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: And
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Re: And
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: And
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: And
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Small question
Isn't this what wikipedia is right now in the sense the facts are community driven. We've seen the hit and miss nature of it. You said its not a Free for all like Wikipedia but though still wondering if it doesn't degrade to one. So, i'm curious, what's in place to keep the community taking the wheel?
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Small question
The degree of accuracy is, on average higher, than the Encyclopedia Britannica, and any major mistakes are corrected quickly.
Say what want about the whole "notability" aspect, and the background arguments behind major articles, but Wikipedia manages to be far more accurate and far more accountable than many other information sources.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Re: Small question
So if you take the page at face value you get one side and come back tomorrow and the facts have changed because of the communities' edits.
Given the highly dynamic and volatile nature of politics it paints an ugly picture for the future of community driven fact checking. As justok said, who fact checks the fact checkers?
Anybody know if If there a system in place for this, if any at all?
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Re: Re: Small question
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Re: Re: Re: Small question
Anywho...
Or blow their whistles :-D
tomato tomato :-P
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Re: Re: Re: Small question
Yeah, because as we all know ... the crowd contains no experts, only people pointing fingers.
Just what is "professional fact-checking" anyway? Is it professional when it is done by a professional journalist?
The crowd doesn't need to agree? What makes you think professional fact checkers would agree on anything?
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Re: Re: Small question
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Re: Re: Small question
Anything that isn't controversial is subject to the standard 1RV rule, meaning you can't have back and forth edit wars.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Opportunity to CwF
The problem is that it would take some real commitment from news organizations, their reporters, and their editors. Too many news organizations don't want to be bothered with the contributions of non-professionals. Plus, sites like Fox News don't really want to be bothered by having to deal with the facts.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
On Leaving It To The Professionals
And it’s very often the individuals with this kind of specialist knowledge that have the greatest interest in ensuring the media get their facts straight.
I think it’ll be a good experiment to have a single point of contact for commentators who want to correct publications, and publications that want to verify their information. I hope it takes off.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: On Leaving It To The Professionals
But wait, that might actually require them to ... gulp ... hire experts in various fields to investigate and not just ignorant journalists who regurgitate what they hear without having any clue as to whether or not it even makes any sense.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Re: On Leaving It To The Professionals
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Re: On Leaving It To The Professionals
Making the process easier, by creating a central database of red flags, will hopefully lead to an increase in a practice that is already going on.
Hiring the experts is absolutely the wrong thing to do. When you control someone’s funding and salary, you can also control the results their research. The less fact checkers we have under the thumb of Murdoch and comapny, the better.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Re: Re: On Leaving It To The Professionals
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
What Fact Checking?
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: What Fact Checking? Um...
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Wisdom of the crowd?
At that same time, German Jews were known to be an inferior race by the German 'crowd'.
Prior to, during, and after the Civil War in the US, the white 'crowd' knew that black folk were mentally inferior, suitable only for physical labor.
In Louisiana, the 'crowd' knew that Huey Long ranked just below God.
Just relatively recent examples - history is full of 'em.
And in all of the previous examples, some of the relevant crowd still believe. Want examples? Let's see, there's Ku Klux Klan, Aryan Brotherhood, skinheads, White Supremacists ...
Considering that, could someone explain to me the *wisdom* of the crowd? History and my own experience lead me to doubt 'common wisdom'.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Wisdom of the crowd?
But despite that, not ALL members of the crowd are that stupid. Some fought (and died) to repel those evil groups you mentioned. Not all of the crowd gets tainted.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Wisdom of the crowd?
We need to eliminate elections and juries immediately or face the dire consequences.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]