Ceding ground as a strategic concession in fact-checking: Shifting practice to shift power. (August 2022)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Waller, Lisa; Brookes, Stephanie
• Other Names: Nolan David guest-editor.; Brookes Stephanie guest-editor.; Wright Scott guest-editor.
• Is Part Of: Media international Australia. Number 184(2022)
• Page Start: 35
• Page End: 48
• Publication Date: 2022-08
• Subjects: Mass media -- Social aspects -- Periodicals; Mass media -- Australia -- Periodicals; Communication -- Australia -- Periodicals; Australia -- Cultural policy -- Periodicals; Médias -- Aspect social -- Périodiques; Médias -- Australie -- Périodiques; Communication -- Australie -- Périodiques; Massamedia; Communication; Cultural policy; Mass media; Mass media -- Social aspects; Australia; Periodicals; 302.23
• DOI: 10.1177/1329878X221088050
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 1324-5325

Abstract

This article looks beyond functionalist accounts to consider how fact-checking organisations and practitioners interact with traditional and alternative sites of media power: holding and negotiating that power in their own right while interfacing collaboratively and strategically with those working in adjacent fields. Interpreted through this theoretical prism, interviews and a content analysis reveal how RMIT ABC Fact Check used its CoronaCheck project to renegotiate and renew its position of authority, and master time, during a moment of intense disruption in the media environment due to the global pandemic. With critical insights from the data as a foundation, the article argues that making strategic concessions in practice – conceptualised here as 'ceding ground' – can open spaces for new approaches in fact-checking.