FAKE NEWS AND THE FACT-CHECKING STRATEGIES IN PAKISTAN AND THE UK: A COMPARATIVE ANALYSIS

Abstract

Fake news has the power to corrupt public discourse, destroy enterprises, damage reputations, and influence political outcomes. The concept of the fact-checking organizations emerged with an aim to combat the virality and spread of the fake news and to create an informed citizenry in the society. Given the potential threat posed by the fake news in today’s world, many countries have established fact- checking organizations at state and private levels. This research endeavor is an attempt to explore and analyze; the areas wherein fake news is spread, sources of fake news, and the strategies adopted by the fact-checkers in the UK (Fullfact, hereafter FF) and Pakistan (Soch Fact Check, SFC) to identify, verify, and refute fake news. Employing the content analysis and SPSS, we have found out that the majority of the fake news are about politics/politicians/political situation. The findings show that the major sources of fake news have been the  “government official/agency/department” and the “politicians” in case of the fact-check done by the FF i.e. in the UK while in case of the fact-check done by the SFC i.e. in Pakistan the majority of the sources of fake news have been the “social media users”. Fact-checkers in both the countries employ similar strategies but there is a difference in their reliance on ‘accuracy’ sources.