From Journalistic Gatekeeping to Algorithmic Governance

Abstract

Fact-checking has evolved from a journalistic corrective tool into a critical infrastructure safeguarding public knowledge and democratic legitimacy in algorithmically mediated societies. Anchored in normative commitments and evolving technological adaptations, contemporary verification practices increasingly straddle and negotiate the boundaries between human discretion and automated decision-making. The analysis traces this transformation by situating fact-checking within sociotechnical systems that shape how truth is constructed, contested, and institutionalized. It discusses the epistemic role of human fact-checkers, the emergence of hybrid human–AI verification models, and the transnational dynamics of global fact-checking organizations. Emphasis is placed on the ethical, cultural, and infrastructural tensions that arise when traditional verification paradigms are reconfigured through platform governance, algorithmic systems, and evolving audience expectations. Rather than viewing fact-checking as a reactive response to misinformation, the discussion frames it as a proactive and pluralistic mode of civic epistemology, one that must reconcile speed with interpretability, automation with accountability, and global standards with local knowledge practices. In doing so, it advances a sociotechnical theory of fact-checking as epistemic infrastructure in algorithmically mediated environments.