Members of the Scam-team, with PhD candidate Reidun J. Samuelsen as the lead author, have published a new article in the journal Journalism Practice: The Relevance of Technology to Information Verification: Insights from Norwegian Journalism During a National Election.

In the article, the authors investigate the relevance of technology to verification practices in Norwegian newsrooms during the 2021 national parliamentary election campaign. The study
is based on responses to a survey of Norwegian journalists and editors and ethnographic
case studies of three newsrooms – the regional newspaper Nordlys, the national public broadcaster NRK, and the fact-checking organization Faktisk.no.

The findings show a discrepancy between the alleged potential of new technologies and the everyday practices of newswork and fact-checking – also in the digitally advanced Norwegian media industry. The authors found tensions between established routines and cultures in the newsroom and the push for the renewal of journalistic methods, which can be sorted under two headings: strategy vs. practice and proximity vs. distance to the beat and sources.

The article is available open access.

Reidun J. Samuelsen presenting the paper “The Relevance of Technology to Information Verification: Insights from Norwegian Journalism During a National Election” at the ICA conference in Toronto, Canada, May 2023