Theory of Change #018: Brooke Binkowski on fact-checking and fighting disinformation

In a 24/7 news environment, everyone is surrounded by information. Some of it is true. Some of it’s false and much of it is somewhere in the middle. It’s often hard to tell what’s true because no one is an expert at everything. And that’s why social media has become universal. Now we’ve seen a new type of journalist emerge, fact checkers, and that’s a fascinating commentary on their importance to society because the commercial media industry, as a whole has been shrinking.

In this episode, I speak to Brooke Binkowski, the managing editor of Truth or Fiction.com. It’s a fact-checking website that she heads up after working on another one called Snopes. After talking about her path into the this new form of journalism, we discuss how the rapper Nicki Minaj has provided a perfect example of how disinformation is believed and spread.

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Theory of Change is hosted by Matthew Sheffield about larger trends and intersections of politics, religion, media, and technology. It's part of the Flux network, a new content community of podcasters and writers. Please visit us at flux.community to learn more and to tell us about what you're doing. We're constantly growing and learning from the great people we meet.

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