The toll of fighting misinformation: precarity in fact-checking work

Stand-alone fact-checking organizations are a relatively recent addition to the journalistic genre, linked to the rapid adoption of social media and a concurrent rise in fake news, misleading, and false information shared on social media sites. Fact-checking organizations around the world increasingly share norms, practices, and epistemologies, suggesting a growing institutionalization of fact-checking. These institutional similarities suggest that fact-checkers may also share similar professional challenges. To better understand the challenges, the effects of dealing with those challenges, and the ways fact-checkers cope with those effects, this study draws on interviews with 51 fact-checkers working at 41 fact-checking organizations from around the world. Findings suggest that fact-checkers face precarity on multiple levels. Fact-checking work itself presents a challenge as many fact-checkers expressed frustration and despair at the recurring falsehoods or “zombie” misinformation they had to debunk, and others are exposed to misinformation that includes upsetting graphic images that impact fact-checkers’ mental health. Additionally, fact-checkers are frequently attacked by audiences and public figures, such as politicians, even as they face financial challenges to organizational survival. Participants in the study shared a number of strategies to prevent, mitigate, or cope with the worst psychological effects, but the findings point to a need to more systematically address the precarity of fact-checking work.