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Idea Overview:
We live in an era of fake news. Flagship news and current affairs TV programmes (e.g. BBC: QUESTION TIME and NEWSNIGHT) today deal with politicians and business leaders who feel confident their lies, untruths and deceptions will not be called out, due to the increased complexity of the media landscape, including the facility to use partisan news outlets and platforms. Similar to glossed comments broadcast in BBC Two's TOTP2, which share information about pop stars during performances, fact-checked subtitles generated by trusted sources could be broadcast in near real time to counterbalance claims made by panelists and interviewees.
Who might use it/where it might be used?:
Viewing audiences of current affairs and news programmes would benefit from these glossed comments from trusted sources in making up their own minds about the veracity or otherwise of statements made by panelists and interviewees. Trusted sources for fact-checking comments automatically could include Full Fact (https://fullfact.org), BBC Reality Check (https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/reality_check) and Channel 4 News Fact Check (https://www.channel4.com/news/factcheck/).
The Market (B2B, B2C or Both):
Both
Sector the idea belongs to:
Gaming
Why you think there is a demand for your idea?:
Fake news is a major issue for today's visual media: television viewers can either be confused by current affairs arguments or blinded by their own prejudices to empirical truth. Fact-check subtitles would help to break down silo thinking to enable genuine debate.
Who would be the ideal customers?:
Broadcasters and social media platforms.
What ideas do you have to reach these customers?:
Lobbying potential customers by building a community of advocates in favour of fact-check subtitles and approaching appropriate media decision-makers.
How far have you developed this idea?:
I wrote to the production team behind QUESTION TIME to share the idea and got no response.
What – if any – feedback have you had for this idea so far?:
Positive feedback from friends; no response yet from media decision-makers.
What supporting material – if any - would you like to add to your proposal?:
Not applicable

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Has one comment to “Fact-check subtitles”

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  1. Simon Krystman - February 6, 2020 at 7:39 am

    Great idea Chris. Could you also host a crowdsourced website like Wikipedia that is crowdfunded to fact check news?