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Roughly eighty full-time people work in fact checking and the research/library at Der Spiegel. It calls this its “Dokumentation” department. Another th
by hliyan 11y ago
Roughly eighty full-time people work in fact checking
and the research/library at Der Spiegel. It calls this
its “Dokumentation” department. Another thirty or so
part-timers also do duty at the magazine.
In an advertising/click-driven 'news' outlet, this would probably be considered, at best, not worth the investment, and at worst, ridiculous. The business case for fact checking (beyond the bare bones you need to avoid law suits) seem to be dying.
- leereeves 11y agoThere's always been a market for low-quality tabloid journalism, and a market for high-quality journalism. Gawker et al are competing for the first market, not the second.
- Dirlewanger 11y agoThis is over 5 years old. I wouldn't be surprised if they have substantially reduced their fact checker numbers.
- deleted 11y ago[deleted]
- germanier 11y agoThey still employ around 70 people in that department, see for example these 2014 slides: http://www.fjum-wien.at/wp/wp-content/uploads/2014/02/FactChecking_Wien_2014.pdf http://www.fjum-wien.at/wp/wp-content/uploads/2014/02/FactCh...
- kardos 11y agoYou're right that the "low-end news" market probably can't afford to do any substantial quality control. But in the high end segment of the market, it's more important than ever. Edward Snowden's journalist/organisation selection was not arbitrary. It's hyperbolic to say that the business case for fact checking is dying, as that suggests that the writing is on the wall and Der Spiegel & friends will soon be moving to a clickbait model. I think a better assessment is that the market for fact checked articles can only support a certain number of players, and the barrier to entry is somewhat high. Meanwhile, the barrier to entry for clickbait news is low, hence the advert saturation and race to the bottom outcome.
- duaneb 11y agoFact-checked news is different than unedited "content"