A World Where Facts Matter: Reflections on the 2024 Elections

By: Sharon Moshavi |11/08/2024

This week's election was the most consequential in modern U.S. history, with far-reaching implications across the world.

Journalists in the ICFJ network, both in the U.S. and globally, covered the vote and will report on its aftermath for years to come.

We asked some of them for their reflections. What they had to say about the role of disinformation in this campaign was eye-opening:

• Madeleine May, who published an investigation into Elon Musk through ICFJ's Disarming Disinformation program last month, was part of the team at CBS News monitoring X, Telegram and Rumble to see what disinformation narratives were breaking through on election night. "When it became apparent Trump was winning, disinformation about elections and election fraud really dropped to a minimum. The voices that had previously been very loud on the topic of unfair elections were not spreading conspiracies. It was probably the quietest 30 hours of reporting I had experienced since August."
• ICFJ Knight Fellow Laura Zommer and her team at Factchequeado, an organization dedicated to empowering Spanish-speaking communities in the U.S. against disinformation, provided continuous live coverage with 20 partners on election night. "These [disinformation] messages may have deepened divisions within Latino communities, including between long-established residents and recent arrivals, or among those with family ties to countries affected by authoritarian regimes, whether from the left or the right, over recent decades."
  

The Factchequeado team on election night

While there was concern about AI-powered disinformation influencing U.S. elections, both May and Zommer said that didn't come to pass. "In actuality, the most powerful disinformation narratives came from candidates, celebrities and influencers," May said. "Disinformation does not have to be high-tech or come from outside actors to be very impactful on public perception." In an analysis for IJNet, Zommer said her team saw 10 familiar types of electoral disinformation repeated this election cycle.

We also know that disinformation campaigns targeting journalists themselves have been far too successful. New findings from an ICFJ survey found a disturbing tolerance in the land of the First Amendment for political bullying of the press: More than one-quarter (27%) of the Americans we polled said they had often seen or heard a journalist being threatened, harassed or abused. And nearly one-quarter (23%) of Americans surveyed did not regard political attacks on journalists or news organizations as a threat to press freedom.

In this environment, support for journalists is only more important. Under a second Trump administration, journalists will be asking the tough questions, investigating and standing up to intimidation, and they will do it with ICFJ's support. At ICFJ, we pledge to help journalists serve as the fourth pillar of democracy, equipping them to expose disinformation, hold the powerful to account and to build trust with their communities - the importance of which cannot be overstated.

Our combined efforts are vital for building a world where facts matter.