The Chicago Guide to Fact-Checking, Second Edition (Chicago Guides to Writing, Editing, and Publishing) - Softcover

Borel, Brooke

Softcover

ISBN 10: 022681789X ISBN 13: 9780226817897

Publisher: University of Chicago Press, 2023

Synopsis

This book will help you:
Recognize what information to fact-check
Identify the quality and ranking of source materials
Learn to fact-check a variety of media types: newspaper; magazine; social media; public and commercial radio and television, books, films, etc.
Navigate relationships with editors, writers, and producers
Recognize plagiarism and fabrication
Discern conflicting facts, gray areas, and litigious materials
Learn record keeping best practices for tracking sources
Test your own fact-checking skills An accessible, one-stop guide to the why, what, and how of contemporary editorial fact-checking.

Over the past few years, fact-checking has been widely touted as a corrective to the spread of misinformation, disinformation, conspiracy theories, and propaganda through the media. “If journalism is a cornerstone of democracy,” says author Brooke Borel, “then fact-checking is its building inspector.”

In The Chicago Guide to Fact-Checking, Borel, an experienced fact-checker, draws on the expertise of more than 200 writers, editors, and fellow checkers representing the New Yorker, Popular Science, This American Life, Vogue, and many other outlets. She covers best practices for editorial fact-checking in a variety of media—from magazine and news articles, both print and online, to books and podcasts—and the perspectives of both in-house and freelance checkers.

In this second edition, Borel covers the evolving media landscape, with new guidance on checking audio and video sources, polling data, and sensitive subjects such as trauma and abuse. The sections on working with writers, editors, and producers have been expanded, and new material includes fresh exercises and advice on getting fact-checking gigs. Borel also addresses the challenges of fact-checking in a world where social media, artificial intelligence, and the metaverse may make it increasingly difficult for everyone—including fact-checkers—to identify false information. The answer, she says, is for everyone to approach information with skepticism—to learn to think like a fact-checker.

The Chicago Guide to Fact-Checking is the practical—and thoroughly vetted—guide that writers, editors, and publishers continue to consult to maintain their credibility and solidify their readers’ trust.

About this title

About the Author

Brooke Borel is an award-winning journalist and the articles editor at Undark. She is the author of Infested: How the Bed Bug Infiltrated Our Bedrooms and Took Over the World, and her writing has appeared in Popular Science, BuzzFeed News, the Guardian, Scientific American, Nature, and Science, among other outlets.

Edition details

• Publisher: University of Chicago Press
• Publication date: 2023
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 022681789X
• ISBN 13: 9780226817897
• Binding: Paperback
• Edition number: 2
• Number of pages: 245