ABSTRACT
This chapter presents ethnographic material on journalists’ experiences, routines, and views regarding fact-checking and fake news, based on field studies conducted at Swedish media organisations on a local, regional and national level. It describes the project and the objectives and specific features of the main product: The Fact Assistant – a web app meant to help journalists verify the legitimacy and validity of claims, media, and sources that appear in everyday newsroom work. The chapter presents the background to the project, how it developed during its process, and some of the problems it has encountered. The main goal of the project was to improve procedures by journalists regarding the verification of digital content and to develop a web app that can be used by journalists for fact-checking in their newsroom work. The Fact Assistant app is based on a systematisation of verification, focusing on media content; the media in which the statements are published; and the sources behind the claim.
