LibraryGuides: Evaluating News: Fact Checking News Media

Journalists and Fact Checking

"Journalism is about finding facts, interpreting their importance, and then sharing that information with the audience. That's all journalists do: find, verify, enrich and then disseminate information. " (from "The importance of Fact-Checking for Journalists" by David Brewer, August 2014.)

Society of Professional Journalists Code of Ethics
Fact Checking at the New Yorker
Verification Handbook
Excellent "how to" guide for journalists
American Press Institute
Journalist's Resource
"Research on today's news topics"
Journalist's toolbox
Presented by the Society of Professional Journalists
Wall Street Journal News Literacy Site
Includes videos on Newsroom Standards & Ethics, and News [impartiality]

Fact Checking Websites

AP Not Real News
A weekly compilation by the Associated Press of popular but false stories in circulation
Center for Public Integrity
"We are one of the country's oldest and largest nonpartisan, nonprofit investigative news organizations. Our mission: To serve democracy by revealing abuses of power, corruption and betrayal of public trust by powerful public and private institutions, using the tools of investigative journalism"
FactCheck.org
Their mission statement is "We are a nonpartisan, nonprofit “consumer advocate” for voters that aims to reduce the level of deception and confusion in U.S. politics.
Flackcheck.org
is the political literacy companion to FactCheck.org.
Media Bias / Fact Check
Search more than 2,900 news sources by name or browse by bias. Each source includes publication history, bias scale and factual reporting rating.
Politifact.com
"Find out which politicians and pundits are telling the truth, which ones are stretching it, and which ones are making statements we rate 'Pants on Fire'."
Procon.org
"Promoting critical thinking, education, and informed citizenship by presenting controversial issues in a straightforward, nonpartisan, primarily pro-con format."
Votesmart
A superb, nonpartisan, political awareness site
Real or Satire
Search for a URL and see if it is real or satire
Reporters Lab.org
This site maintains a database of global fact-checking sites.
SciCheck
FactCheck.org’s SciCheck feature focuses exclusively on false and misleading scientific claims that are made by partisans to influence public policy
Snopes.com
Began in 1995, snopes.com is all about rumor research
Washington Post Fact Checker
"The purpose of this Web site, and an accompanying column in the Sunday print edition of The Washington Post, is to “truth squad” the statements of political figures regarding issues of great importance, be they national, international or local"

How to Fact Check Like a Pro

Thank you to Indiana University East for use of graphic.

Featured: Coronavirus Fact Checking

Infodemic Monitor
Fact checking and debunking false claims about the coronavirus, COVID-19.

Fact Checking Exercises

Calling Bullshit in the Age of big Data
A University of Washington class on spotting fake news
Center For News Literacy
Free online news literacy class
Check Please! Starter Course
Five 30 minute lessons on fact and source checking with video instruction, examples, and practice activities.
Collection of Resources: "Media Literacy Research, Resources, Lessons and Project Ideas" by Shannon McClintock-Miller
Digital Resource Center
News literacy learning resources
Evaluating a News Article infographic
ImVain Reliability Checklist
A fill-in-the-blanks form for verifying the sources used in a news article.
Introduction to News Literacy
" A six week course
offered by The University of Hong Kong & The State University of New York via Coursera, Audit the course for free. Resources include a glossary of terms such as bias, cognitive dissonance, confirmation bias, propaganda, selective dissonance, verfication, etc."
Lessons: "3 Fast, Free Lesson Plans for Fighting Fake News" by Vicky Davis on her blog, Cool Cat Teacher
Let's Check a Claim
more...less...
An article on whether or not the earth is hollow
Web Literacy for Student Fact-Checkers
An online book about web literacy that covers the "Four Moves" of evaluating online information for credibility.