Fact-checking on TV: the importance of format

What makes fact-checking work on TV? TV authors should work on creating a real format with precise rules. The audience must be aware that something different is happening. Otherwise, they can’t distinguish this new approach in the flow of information and emotions. They can’t distinguish a pundit from a fact-checker. They can’t distinguish between facts that build an opinion from facts that build a verdict.

We will speak about fact-checking as a TV format with Alexios Mantzarlis, Natalia Hernández Rojo and Patrick Worrall. We will speak about fact-checking as part of the plot. The challenge we face is to put something that you have planned and produced into a plot that is continuously developing. How can we be sure that it is still relevant when the plot changes? We will speak about fact-checking as a separate segment in a programme. And we will speak about fact-checking as a programme itself. Doing fact-checking well on TV is as important as doing fact-checking at all to provide viewers with precise information.