Gaining historical perspective on political fact-checking : the experience of the United States
Background. This paper provides an historical perspective on the wide use of fake facts in modern American society, and the efforts of librarians, journalists, and others to scrutinize public discourse as well as printed and online materials in order to differentiate fake facts from truth. Objective...
| Main Authors: | , |
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| Format: | Journal Article |
| Language: | English |
| Published: |
2021
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| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | https://hdl.handle.net/10356/154418 |
| _version_ | 1824456204537036800 |
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| author | Cortada, James W. Aspray, William |
| author_facet | Cortada, James W. Aspray, William |
| author_sort | Cortada, James W. |
| collection | NTU |
| description | Background. This paper provides an historical perspective on the wide use of fake facts in modern American society, and the efforts of librarians, journalists, and others to scrutinize public discourse as well as printed and online materials in order to differentiate fake facts from truth. Objective. To develop a method for automatic extraction of causal chains from text. Results. The paper identifies six historical factors that influenced both the belief in truth as a value and the ability to carry out these evaluations: (1) the rise in various kinds of literacy and numeracy; (2) expansion of data-driven government; (3) the rise of scientific and social science research; (4) an expanding progressive sentiment to address social problems; (5) the transformation of the media to become fact-driven; and (6) the creation of a data and computing infrastructure robust enough to handle real-world problems. All six factors were in effect, at least in an incipient form, by the end of the nineteenth century. |
| first_indexed | 2025-02-19T03:50:23Z |
| format | Journal Article |
| id | ntu-10356/154418 |
| institution | Nanyang Technological University |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2025-02-19T03:50:23Z |
| publishDate | 2021 |
| record_format | dspace |
| spelling | ntu-10356/1544182021-12-22T20:11:42Z Gaining historical perspective on political fact-checking : the experience of the United States Cortada, James W. Aspray, William Library and information science Background. This paper provides an historical perspective on the wide use of fake facts in modern American society, and the efforts of librarians, journalists, and others to scrutinize public discourse as well as printed and online materials in order to differentiate fake facts from truth. Objective. To develop a method for automatic extraction of causal chains from text. Results. The paper identifies six historical factors that influenced both the belief in truth as a value and the ability to carry out these evaluations: (1) the rise in various kinds of literacy and numeracy; (2) expansion of data-driven government; (3) the rise of scientific and social science research; (4) an expanding progressive sentiment to address social problems; (5) the transformation of the media to become fact-driven; and (6) the creation of a data and computing infrastructure robust enough to handle real-world problems. All six factors were in effect, at least in an incipient form, by the end of the nineteenth century. Published version 2021-12-22T06:41:02Z 2021-12-22T06:41:02Z 2020 Journal Article Cortada, J. W. & Aspray, W. (2020). Gaining historical perspective on political fact-checking : the experience of the United States. Library and Information Science Research E-Journal, 30(1), 1-32. https://dx.doi.org/10.32655/LIBRES.2020.1.1 1058-6768 https://hdl.handle.net/10356/154418 10.32655/LIBRES.2020.1.1 1 30 1 32 en Library and Information Science Research E-Journal © 2020 James W. Cortada, William Aspray. All rights reserved. application/pdf |
| spellingShingle | Library and information science Cortada, James W. Aspray, William Gaining historical perspective on political fact-checking : the experience of the United States |
| title | Gaining historical perspective on political fact-checking : the experience of the United States |
| title_full | Gaining historical perspective on political fact-checking : the experience of the United States |
| title_fullStr | Gaining historical perspective on political fact-checking : the experience of the United States |
| title_full_unstemmed | Gaining historical perspective on political fact-checking : the experience of the United States |
| title_short | Gaining historical perspective on political fact-checking : the experience of the United States |
| title_sort | gaining historical perspective on political fact checking the experience of the united states |
| topic | Library and information science |
| url | https://hdl.handle.net/10356/154418 |
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