Sourcing Dis/Information: How Swedish and Ukrainian Journalists Source, Verify, and Mediate Journalistic Truth During the Russian-Ukrainian Conflict

ABSTRACT

Journalists form the middle links of global information chains, playing a decisive role in detecting and dismantling or amplifying problematic information. Information sourcing, verification, and transparency are important tools for journalists when they transmit their sense-making of events, i.e., the journalistic truth, to the audiences. This mixed-methods study of the disinformation-prone conflict between Russia and Ukraine investigates how journalists at different positions on the information chain—i.e., on the ground (Ukraine) and at a distance (Sweden)—source, verify, and narrate their journalistic truth to audiences. We found that, even in high-pressure situations created by hot conflicts, sourcing and verification remain mostly individualized practices that are shaped by internalized unwritten, professional rules of an oral newsroom culture. Verification protocols or specialized tools are largely absent. Sources were sometimes hard to detect in the journalistic content; claims about their verification status even harder. There was a fear that being overtly transparent about sources would jeopardize journalists’ authority. Especially problematic are the precarious working and living conditions for journalists on the ground. These conditions make them vulnerable sources for journalists abroad.

KEYWORDS:

• Sourcing
• verification
• journalistic truth
• transparency
• disinformation
• conflict coverage

Acknowledgements

This work is supported by The Swedish Civil Contingencies Agency (MSB). The authors report there are no competing interests to declare and thank Emma Andersson for her assistance with the qualitative content analysis of the Swedish material.

Disclosure Statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by The Swedish Civil Contingencies Agency (MSB).