What is Factable?
Factable is a fact checking service created by the Journalism department at the University of Colorado, at Boulder. The goal is to provide the public with a platform that has objective truths. Allowing them to discern which services are reporting the news and which ones are spinning it to fit their agenda.
Strategy
Objective: we are starting at ground zero with this product in an area that has little traction. The aspirations are to become a national fact checking product that provides the public with a way to check politicians and newspapers alike, restoring the purpose of the news; to keep people properly informed. We are currently operating in a market that is littered with distrust and bias, consumers either don’t care for the truth or believe it cannot be found.
Why should we care: People love politics because it gives us a chance to voice our opinions and assert our expertise amongst others. The allure is being right and proving people wrong, the detraction is research. How do we get people to care about the research and how do we sway people who are deeply rooted into their political bias.
Relevance: Attracting consumers to a fact checking service poses a few challenges. The first being getting around the biases people have towards media. By finding ways to make facts relevant to the day to day lives of the general public we can begin to show importance of objective media and the harm misinformation can cause.
Check Your Facts
People tend prioritize problems based on the relevance the problem holds to their day to day lives. The greater the impact, the higher priority. While we can all agree that the spread of false information is harmful it is difficult to see the impact it has on our daily lives. This campaign works to make false facts relevant in the everyday lives of consumers as well as demonstrate the potential danger behind it.
Billboard placed outside a local dog park.
Social Accountability
Social media has become a hot bed for the spread of misinformation. Those who are deeply rooted in their biases can simply turn to “facts” or false truths that further their own beliefs. These billboards work to highlight the abundance of false information circulating around the web and remind users to check their facts before posting.
Tweets selected from false facts with the most traction.
