SOCIAL MEDIA, DISINFORMATION, AND VERIFICATION IN NEWS AGENCIES

Publication Date: 01/01/2026

Pages: 359-370

DOI: 10.4324/9781032704210-34

Abstract:

From their formative years in the mid-19th century, the major international news agencies have prided themselves on their ability to deliver “plain vanilla,” fact-based journalism. The mantra was always: check the facts. Today, more than 150 years later, in an era of fake news, social media conspiracy theories, and “alternative” facts, news agencies find themselves ideally placed to counter this veritable tsunami of disinformation. But how successful have they been in rising to the challenge? This chapter starts by charting the agencies’ fact-checking ethos and their uneasy relationship with social media, a phenomenon that was at the beginning alien to their culture but has gradually been recognized as an indispensable tool in modern reporting. It examines how the agencies have built up verification teams, each instinctively drawing on their culture of fact-checking and, correctly, anticipating a backlash against social media disinformation. These dedicated teams have become essential to their own news operations as years of budget cuts thin out networks of foreign correspondents and as safety concerns and access restrictions make it increasingly difficult to cover conflicts such as those in Syria or in Israel and Gaza. Today, the news agencies are more dependent than ever on stringers, freelancers, and fixers to provide reporting and images from conflict zones. But they are acutely aware that such content has to be thoroughly checked and know full well the reputational damage that can be wrought by false or biased information. At the same time, the establishment of these verification teams has opened up a new stream of revenue as the agencies market their expertise to other media outlets and social media platforms. By championing their fact-based approach to news, the agencies have demonstrated a deep-rooted conviction that their hard news credentials will stand the test of time and can provide a counter-weight to disinformation.

Source: Scopus