Abstract

Academic attention towards the effectiveness of fact-checking often centres on how receptive people are to the correction of news. But many studies do not take into account audience expectations of fact-checking or their engagement with news generally in the context of a national media system or its political culture. Our study makes an intervention into debates about fact-checking by focussing on the effectiveness this type of journalism has with audiences who were attentive to the news in the UK’s media system during a key point in a major health crisis. Drawing on a six-week news diary study (N = 200) during the coronavirus pandemic, our study concluded that the UK’s impartial media ecology and public service ethos creates an environment where audiences are largely receptive to journalists’ fact-checking and countering misinformation. Yet our content analysis of television news (N = 1259) during the pandemic found most broadcasters did not regularly challenge or question the government’s decision-making. We argue that since audiences favoured robust forms of journalistic scrutiny, broadcasters could more prominently fact-check claims and question dubious statements without undermining trust in journalism. We recommend scholars should pay more attention to understanding the audience reception of fact-checking across different media and political systems.

摘要

对事实核查有效性的学术关注通常集中在人们对新闻更正的接受程度上。但许多研究没有考虑到观众对事实核查的期望或他们在国家媒体系统或其政治文化背景下对新闻的参与。我们的研究通过关注此类新闻对在重大健康危机关键时刻关注英国媒体系统新闻的受众的有效性，对有关事实核查的辩论进行了干预。借鉴为期六周的新闻日记研究（N = 200）在冠状病毒大流行期间，我们的研究得出结论，英国公正的媒体生态和公共服务精神创造了一种环境，观众在很大程度上接受记者的事实核查和反击错误信息。然而，我们在大流行期间对电视新闻 ( N = 1259)的内容分析 发现，大多数广播公司并没有经常挑战或质疑政府的决策。我们认为，由于观众喜欢强有力的新闻审查形式，因此广播公司可以更突出地核实事实并质疑可疑陈述，而不会破坏对新闻业的信任。我们建议学者们应该更多地关注了解不同媒体和政治体系中事实核查的受众接受度。