DUBAWA 2023 fellows with the management team. Credit: Gbolahan Ogunsolu/CJID
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A new study has shown that the annual DUBAWA Kwame Karikari fact-checking fellowship has helped upskill participants with verification skills necessary to tackle modern information disorder.
The research, titled “Uptake and Sustainability of Fact-Checking Practice Beyond a Journalism Fellowship in West Africa,” was authored by Raheemat Adeniran of Fountain University and Rasaki Raji, both past fellows of the fellowship.
Published in the African Journalism Studies journal, the study evaluated the long-term impact of the DUBAWA Fact-Checking Fellowship, an annual six-month programme launched in 2019 to promote verification culture across the Anglophone West African sub-region.
Since its inception, the fellowship has graduated six cohorts of journalists from Nigeria, Ghana, Sierra Leone, The Gambia, Liberia, Senegal and Ivory Coast, providing them with intensive training and mentorship to combat the growing misinformation and disinformation within their societies.
Fellowship’s successes
The researchers surveyed 38 former fellows from various media organisations across Nigeria. The survey respondents include fellows of the first three cohorts, spanning 2019 to 2021.
Survey questions probe respondents’ personal reflections on their professional practices within their specific newsroom contexts. Twenty-eight fellows participated in the study, representing a 74% response rate from the eligible population.
Respondents reported post-fellowship professional competence, with their fact-checking proficiency rising from an average score of 3.2 over 10 before the fellowship to 8.3 over 10 afterwards.
However, this technical growth declined after the fellowship, with self-ratings for specific tasks, such as writing fact-checks, which dropped from an average of 3.5 out of 5 during the programme to 3.2 out of 5 afterward.
Verifying claims in reported stories remained a priority for many, averaging 3.9 over 5 both during and after the fellowship. However, other responsibilities, such as writing media literacy articles, dipped to 2.6 over 5 once the fellowship ended.
The study also recorded the fellowship’s “multiplier effect,” as many fellows successfully facilitated the creation of dedicated fact-checking desks and conducted “step-down” training to entrench verification habits among their colleagues.
Hindrances to sustainability
However, the policies and priorities of the fellows’ newsroom undermine some of these gains. Fellows frequently navigate a “toxic” working environment in which media managers view fact-checking as a disruption that offers no immediate “return on investment.” The study revealed that many media managers prioritised high-traffic, viral content that drives advertising revenue, regardless of the content’s accuracy.
Beyond these economic pressures, the research identifies regulatory pressures and controversial legislation, such as the Hate Speech and Social Media Bills, as major drivers of self-censorship. Respondents noted that their organisations often pull down fact-checks targeting government policies or major advertisers to avoid retribution, shrinking civic space to hold power to account.
Consequently, the authors argue that the long-term sustainability of the practice requires more than just training. There is a demand for a shift in newsroom funding models and editorial policies that prioritise accuracy and independence over political safety.
The researchers mentioned the need for institutional shifts to internalise the transformation the fellows enjoyed during the fellowship. They urge media development funders to integrate post-fellowship support mechanisms, beyond one-off trainings, to address local newsrooms’ structural and financial vulnerabilities.
The research suggested that future studies should adopt a regional comparative approach to better understand the contexts that influence the sustainability of fact-checking.
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