ABSTRACT
Ever since Locke (1690/1998) introduced the notion of the fact in 1690, mediated human communication has revolved around facticity-the claim that a given datum or narrative does or does not refer to empirical reality. Distinctions between fact and fiction, fact and opinion, fact and falsehood, and fact and error are important for legal, economic, and often social treatment of information and those who produce it. Genres became distinguished along these lines so that journalism and history, for example, are presented as factual, whereas fiction is not. Adherence to specific practices and procedures for the production of fact are the core of professionalism in law, journalism, and science. Institutions with the capacity to “certify” data and narratives as factual have developed, always associated with governance and power.
