Guardians of the Digital Public

The Emergence of Fact-Checking as a Hybrid Professional Community

Abstract

Over the past two decades, fact-checking has emerged as a prominent response to growing concerns about misinformation, public trust, and the integrity of public communication. What began as a marginal journalistic routine has developed into a specialized, highly visible practice that operates across national borders and institutional domains. Today, fact-checking is carried out by a diverse set of actors who share a core verification practice but are embedded in heterogeneous media systems, governance contexts, and market environments. This raises important questions about how fact-checkers establish and sustain professional expertise, autonomy, and authority in the absence of formal institutional protections.

This article examines fact-checking as an emerging professional project shaped by transnational coordination and dense interdependencies with platforms, governance bodies, academia, and markets. Drawing on the literature on hybrid and connective professionalism, it analyzes how fact-checkers collectively organize verification practices, negotiate autonomy, and reproduce authority under conditions of institutional complexity. By tracing how professional claims are enacted across expertise, autonomy, and authority, the article contributes to a better understanding of how new forms of professionalism take shape in contemporary information governance.