Citizen journalism in Morocco: the case of fact-checkers.

Social networks are becoming a site of unprecedented diffusion of fake news and misinformation in Morocco. This fact does not only affect people as individuals but also undermines social order and cohesion in general. To fight back, a number of journalists and researchers have engaged in fact-checking processes to verify claims and information. In this regard, this study considers fact-checking as an emerging journalistic brand that has the potential to promote healthier public debate in the contemporary media environment in Morocco. For this reason, a qualitative approach is adopted to explore the nature of a group of Moroccan online fact checkers to understand their motivations, practices, process of production, and the impact they have made in the public sphere. The significance of this research resides in the fact that it tracks a trend in Moroccan media landscape and investigates its importance in creating communities of interest. Also, exploring this new online trend will help in providing a different perspective on the richness and diversity of content, and change how people think about the online media environment in Morocco. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]