CREST represented at international fact-checking conference in South Korea
24 July 2023
GlobalFact10, the world’s largest fact-checking summit, took place in Seoul, South Korea, from 28 to 30 June 2023. CREST PhD student Lali van Zuydam attended the conference as part of an international research team investigating fact-checking in the global south, while Professor Marina Joubert, a science engagement researcher at CREST, attended the conference online.
Each year, the conference brings together approximately 200 fact-checking organisations from all over the world, as well as researchers, media education specialists, technology companies, and the main social media platforms used today, including Facebook, YouTube, and TikTok.
Joubert and van Zuydam are collaborating with digital media scholars in Australia and Colombia on a project to investigate fact-checking as a tool to counter misinformation in the global south. The project has successfully competed for a research grant of R700 000 (seven hundred thousand Rand) for 2023, awarded by Meta.
Dr Michelle Riedlinger from the Digital Media Research Centre at Queensland University of Technology in Australia leads the project along with Dr Silvia Montaña-Niño. Prof Víctor García-Perdomo from Universidad de La Sabana coordinates the Latin-American part of the research from Colombia. In South Africa, Dr Joubert is taking the lead. Van Zuydam and postgraduate student at Queensland University of Technology, Ned Watt, are providing research assistance.
Research about fact-checking has focused predominantly on practices in Europe, the UK, North America, and Asia. The current project is investigating fact-checkers strategies outside these regions, focusing on Latin America, Africa, and Australia.
African fact-checking organisations represented at GlobalFact10 included Africa Check, Dubawa, GhanaFact, PesaCheck, and FactCheckHub, among others. Regional body, the Africa Facts network, was represented during a panel discussion on fact-checking in different world regions. As part of their research, Joubert and van Zuydam are conducting interviews with fact-checkers in Africa to explore their fact-checking strategies and the impact of the political contexts where they work.
Víctor García-Perdomo, Universidad de la Sabana, Michelle Riedlinger, Queensland University of Technology, Silvia Montaña-Niño, Queensland University of Technology, Lali van Zuydam, Stellenbosch University, and Ned Watt, Queensland University of Technology, at the GlobalFact10 conference in Seoul, South Korea.
