If you thought your job was hard, think of the fact-checkers working on U.S. election day.
What happened: Per Axios, a record 5,000 people are expected to clock in for their election night shift at the Associated Press today. Thousands of newsrooms globally rely on the news co-operative to provide real-time data on votes in 7,000 state, local, and federal races.
- AP’s election map will be available in 18 languages and see up to 21,000 updates every hour, even though the race is so close it could take days to determine a winner.
Why it matters: Covering this election comes with unprecedented challenges, including the potential of rejected mail-in ballots in a historically tight race. Meanwhile, young people are more likely to turn to social media for updates, and who knows what they’ll find there.
- The Globe and Mail’s standards editor Sandra Martin recently wrote that the demand for immediate analysis is “at odds with the time-consuming need to fact-check.”
In Canada: Journalists have been dispatched to Washington, D.C., and swing states but are ready to pivot at a moment’s notice, while those remaining in the newsroom work with other networks and partners to get the story right. “It’s a team effort,” Tracy Seeley, head of news gathering at CBC, told The Peak.—SB