The epistemic status of reproducibility in political fact-checking

Fact-checking agencies assess and score the truthfulness of politicians’ claims to foster their electoral accountability. Fact-checking is sometimes presented as a quasi-scientific activity, based on reproducible verification protocols that would guarantee an unbiased assessment. We will study these...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published inEuropean journal for philosophy of science Vol. 14; no. 1
Main Authors Fernández-Roldan, Alejandro, Teira, David
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published Dordrecht Springer Netherlands 01.03.2024
Springer Nature B.V
Subjects
Education
Paper in Philosophy of Science in Practice
Philosophy
Philosophy of Science
Reproducibility
Verification
Fact-checking
Reproducibility
Truth scores
Accountability
Online AccessGet full text

Cover

More Information
Summary:Fact-checking agencies assess and score the truthfulness of politicians’ claims to foster their electoral accountability. Fact-checking is sometimes presented as a quasi-scientific activity, based on reproducible verification protocols that would guarantee an unbiased assessment. We will study these verification protocols and discuss under which conditions fact-checking could achieve effective reproducibility. Through an analysis of the methodological norms in verification protocols, we will argue that achieving reproducible fact-checking may not help much in rendering politicians accountable. Political fact-checkers do not deliver either reproducibility or accountability today, and there are reasons to think that traditional quality journalism may serve liberal democracies better.
ISSN:1879-4912
1879-4920
DOI:10.1007/s13194-024-00575-8