JERAA is pleased to publish a major research report on fact-checking, completed as a result of a successful 2016 JERAA Research Grant by Dr Stephanie Brookes from Monash University.

Download Checking the Facts (PDF document 512Kb)

By Dr Stephanie Brookes

Campaign coverage, online journalism and fact-checking in the 2016 Australian Federal and US Presidential election campaigns’.

Summary

This report considers the current role and position of fact-checking in Australian political and election campaign journalism.

This innovative journalistic approach, which has a long history in the United States, is only just over five years old in Australia – the first dedicated fact-checkers launched ahead of the 2013 Federal election campaign.

The report presents the results of a case study focusing on how three Australian and three United States legacy news organisations incorporated fact-checking into their online coverage of key events in national-level elections in 2016.

The report finds that while fact-checking was consistently integrated throughout the US coverage, it was much less commonly taken up in Australia, with only the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) providing routine fact-checking of the campaign events studied.