1. Identification responses

Summary of the presentations and discussions on "identification responses" to disinformation from the June 2021 GFMD IMPACT donor-practitioner-academic meeting on disinformation.

MONITORING & FACT-CHECKING

Monitoring and fact-checking responses tend to be carried out by news organisations, internet communications companies, academia, civil society organisations, and independent fact-checking organisations, as well as (where these exist) partnerships between several such organisations. (Source: Bontcheva)

Fact-checking

Language barriers

Sustainability

Challenge: Media development practitioners and academics noted that too often fact-checking projects last only as long as the short-term grants that initiate them.

Marius Dragomir presented the highlights from the Center for Media Data and Society’s (March 2021) research, “What keeps fact-checking organizations up and night”.

Karolina Luczak-Santana and Mikias Sebsibe identified four core insights from using human-centred design to kick off a fact-checking project in Ethiopia.

  1. Having a strong local partner organisation with a deep understanding of the media landscape and a good network with the actors in the industry.

  2. A systemic approach that considers building and supporting structures in media organisations, especially when you're thinking about sustainability.

  3. Secure the buy-in from media houses by offering support that takes into account the interests of the media organisations. “For example, in our case, we offered media viability consultancies as an additional activity alongside the fact-checking project”.

Read the full case study here.

Watch a video giving background about the project here.

The need to offer fact-checkers legal digital physical and psychological support was emphasised in Saja Mortada’s presentation of the highlights from ARIJ’s (Dec. 2020) policy paper, “Combating Disinformation in the Arab World - The COVID-19 pandemic”.

The policy paper and participants in the meeting encourage donors to support collaboration and networks of fact-checkers to enhance skills and learn from those who operate in similar and relatable contexts in terms of press freedom and access to data, as well as media markets, audience preferences and behaviour.

Social listening and data monitoring

What did they say? Participants encouraged more critical thinking about the information collected about disinformation responses through social listening and data monitoring and to create comprehensive approaches to sharing and using that information.

INVESTIGATIVE RESPONSES

Go beyond message/content veracity, to analyse disinformation campaigns: originating actors, degree of spread, and affected communities; aim to help governments, news organisations, fact-checkers, and other organisations in deciding when, where, and how to deploy effective countermeasures. (Source: Bontcheva)

Saja Mortada presented the highlights from ARIJ’s (Dec. 2020) policy paper, “Combating Disinformation in the Arab World - The COVID-19 pandemic”.

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