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Articles by Lucas Graves

Lucas Graves is a PhD candidate in communications at Columbia University. His dissertation studies the fact-checking movement in American journalism as a window onto changes in the news ecosystem. He has worked as a technology and media analyst with Digital Technology Consulting and before that with Jupiter Research, where he covered web technology as well as online advertising and commerce. He is also is a longtime magazine journalist, now on the masthead of Wired magazine. He holds an MA in communications and an MS in journalism from Columbiaʹs J‐School, and a BA in political science from the University of Chicago.
“Misinformation is not like plumbing, a problem you fix. It is a social condition, like crime, that you must constantly monitor and adjust to.”
“The facts unearthed by reporters and other watchdogs are a resource for public action, but they tend to make a real difference only when they are mobilized by political campaigns or social movements, or used to trigger institutional responses from regulators or the courts.”
“Fact-checkers and computer scientists have worked together on a string of projects that aim to automate different part of the fact-checking process. One thing these efforts have in common is using automation as an enhancement, rather than a replacement, for journalistic work.”
“Truth vigilante” or no, the hubbub over fact-checking in news articles gets at some deeper issues about how journalists view their own work.