Mid Sweden University

Fact-checking is the journalistic activity of tracking and counteracting false and misleading claims. It has gained prominence over the last decade as a response to the overwhelming spread of falsehoods mostly on social media. Meanwhile, while scholarly evidence shows that fact-checkers perceive their roles in very different ways, there is insufficient scholarly attention paid to Sub-Saharan Africa. In view of this argument, this study investigates how fact-checkers in Cameroon, Kenya, Nigeria, and South Africa perceive their roles and the challenges they encounter within distinct political and media environments. Theoretically, the study is underpinned by scholarship on journalistic cultures, political and media systems framework. The study adopted in-depth, semi-structured interviews with a total of 19 fact-checkers from the four Sub-Saharan African countries. The findings reveal that the roles of fact-checkers in the countries of study are not monolithic but are significantly influenced by the political context, societal norms, and the evolving nature of misinformation. The research lays emphasis on the need for tailored fact-checking strategies that address diverse challenges.

Recent research has suggested that fact-checkers understand their own missions in very different ways, crucially because they operate in a wide variety of media and political environments. Considering this argument, this article examines and compares how fact-checkers perceive their role in France, Sweden and the United States, three established western democracies that differ in their media and political systems. Theoretically, the study is guided by research on journalistic cultures. Methodologically, it employs semi-structured interviews with fact-checkers selected from the three countries. The findings reveal that French fact-checkers have a more nuanced view of their role, including debunking online falsehoods, correcting politicians’ lies and explaining complex domestic and foreign issues to the public. The priority for the Swedish fact-checkers is to provide facts and explanations to the public about salient domestic issues. In contrast, for US fact-checkers, the priority is to hold political actors accountable for their claims. While these differences in perceptions align with the journalistic cultures of the countries under study, they challenge the assumed monolithic epistemology of fact-checking and reveal the increasingly blurred boundaries between fact-checking and news journalism. 

This article examines the connection between political parties’ perceptions of the importance of news media as source of political information, and the extent to which they adapt their communications to the standards, routines, formats and logic of the news media in Cameroon. This, with the objective of being attractive to the news media and gain coverage. The contextual focus of the study is the 2018 presidential election campaign in Cameroon. Theoretically, the study is guided by the mediatization of politics hypothesis. Empirically, it utilizes in-depth interviews with spokespersons of political parties which presented candidates to the election. The findings show that most parties cared very little about adapting their campaign communications to the news media logic, because they believe the news media in Cameroon have a negligible significance for election performance. Instead, political parties largely focalized their strategies on oral face-to-face rallies and door-to-door canvassing, which they perceive as more effective and efficient for reaching the electorate.

Social media platforms are increasingly used by non-traditional journalists in sub-Saharan Africa for production and distribution of information. The involvement of these peripheral actors—for whom there is in reality no requirement that they adhere to professional ethics and journalistic principles—in the production and circulation of information is not without raising concerns about fake news and the quality of the information published via Facebook and Twitter accounts. This article assesses the information shared on Facebook about the anglophone crisis in Cameroon by individuals who present themselves as citizen journalists. Theoretically, we draw from the gatekeeping theory and the concept of fake news. Empirically, we use a mixed multi-method approach with both quantitative and qualitative methods. The period of analysis includes four weeks, from 15 August to 15 September 2018. The results prove that a large number of Facebook news stories lack important elements of verifiability and reliability.