Summary – Key Sources

 

Browser Fact Checker.  If you want to check a specific story, do a search on Google.  Use this Google phrase: “fact check search term(s).”   An example: "fact check trump best blacks history" for the story on Trump claims that he has been the best president ever for black Americans. 

 

Profiles the Latest Fake News Stories and you use their search box to find others.

1. www.snopes.com.  Oldest, highly respected. Started in 1994 by David Mikkelson. Owned by Snopes Media Group.  Profiles the latest fake news.  Has search box. 

2. www.truthorfiction.com. One of the earliest started in 1999. Family owned. Rich Buhler, broadcaster, founded it; and now his family runs it.   Categories: politics, fake news, viral news, and entertainment scams.  Has a search box too. 

3. www.fullfact.org – London-based fact checking service, non-profit.  Fact checks the top stories in the news.  Has search box to find others. 

 

Specific Subject Fact Checking Sites

1. Climate and Environmental. https://climatefeedback.org/   non-profit in France. 

2. COVID Pandemic.  Go to https://covid19misinfo.org/ 

3. Online Videos.  Transparency Tube (www.transparency.tube) is a non-profit.  Does the categorizing, indexing, and analyzing of over 7,300 of the largest English language YouTube channels actively discussing political and cultural issues

 

Scams and Hoaxes (trying to gyp you from your money)

To double-check consumer scams and hoaxes, try one of these sites. 

• www.hoax-slayer.net Run by small team in Australia. Started in 2003.  But it covers issues worldwide: the latest Internet scams, email hoaxes, and the like.  Has Latest stories; Top Ten Scams; and scams by category.  See a trend that a lot are linked to Facebook and other social media accounts. 

• The FTC has its own scam reporting site.  https://www.consumer.ftc.gov/features/scam-alerts

• And the IRS has its tax scams and consumer warnings site:  https://www.irs.gov/newsroom/tax-scams-consumer-alerts

 

Political and Governmental News

1. www.factcheck.org   Checks political statements and politicians for accuracy.  Latest news and a search box.  Started in 2003.  Sponsored by the Annenberg Public Policy Center; based at journalism center at University of PA. Staff of former reporters, writers, and editors.

2. www.politifact.com   Recent political quotes reported in the media.  Rates political statements on their Truth-O-Meter.  owned by non-profit, Poynter Institute. Created in 2007 by Tampa Bay Tribune. Large staff.   Has fact checking in state editions, top social issues, and people in the news.  See also https://www.poynter.org/category/fact-checking/    and list of media literacy sites.

3. www.opensecrets.org  “Top resource for clear, unbiased information”. operated by Center for Responsive Politics, non-partisan research group that “tracks the money” in government or campaign spending.

4. Lloyd’s Register Foundation “World Risk Poll”. https://wrp.lrfoundation.org.uk/   A global study of people’s worry and risk taking opinions. 

 

Organization based fact checkers

• Current news stories.  CNN Political now offers its online Facts First.  https://www.cnn.com/specials/politics/fact-check-politics 

• AP News.   www.apnews.com    fact checking by AP journalists.  https://apnews.com/hub/ap-fact-check 

• Washington Post Fact Checker.   Latest news.  https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/fact-checker/

• BBC News.  https://www.bbc.com/news/topics/cjxv13v27dyt/fake-news

Good set of examples about fake news from BBC News.

• Twitter’s Trending Topics feature.  This comes up for any story in your timeline or when you search that falls into their coverage of hot topics.  https://help.twitter.com/en/using-twitter/twitter-trending-faqs

 

Guides to Evaluating News Sources

• Rutgers University.  https://libguides.rutgers.edu/fake_news

• Center for Media Engagement.  University of Texas, Austin

https://mediaengagement.org/research/news-site-analysis/

• Cornell University.  Fake News Teaching Site.  https://guides.library.cornell.edu/evaluate_news/fakenews

• Media Matters (www.mediamatters.org ). is another not-for-profit group that tracks media groups.  Started in 2004.  Monitors, analyzes, and corrects misinformation

• It is critical for young and old to evaluate their use of Social Media in all its iterations.  See this guide which talks about addiction to social media.  https://www.lanierlawfirm.com/social-media-addiction/. 

 

Use software and search tools to help you detect untrustworthy sites:

• NewsGuard (The Internet Trust Tool) www.newsguardtech.com charges about $3 per month to enable a search engine browser extension that give ratings to thousands of sites you may be using to get information.

• Graphika has worked to disarm GRM (Russia’s intelligence agency).  https://graphika.com/   Highly sophisticated; data maps of social media landscapes.  Internet research, software tools.

• Wayback Machine (https://archive.org/web/). https://blog.archive.org/2020/10/30/fact-checks-and-context-for-wayback-machine-pages/

• Media Manipulation Casebook (special website www.mediamanipulation.org) at Harvard Kennedy School Research tools.

• I thought you might be interested in sharing this guide I came across with your audience :
  https://www.safetydetectives.com/blog/parents-guide-for-safe-youtube-and-internet-streaming-for-kids/

 

Research about Consumer Media & Information Habits

1. Pew Research Center (non-profit) https://www.pewresearch.org/

• U.S. Media Polarization.  Study,  Jan. 2020

• Measuring News Consumption in a Digital Era.  Study, Dec., 2020.

• Pew Research Center, looked at possible trends both positive and negative. The study, “The Future of Truth and Misinformation Online.  Oct. 2017.

1. EdWeek Research Center.  https://www.edweek.org/research-center/

 

Articles / Papers

 

NYT, 9.11.20. “Getting Wise to Fake News”. https://nyti.ms/33eeUcC

 

“News Literacy: The 7 Habits You Need to Develop.”  From a series at Honest Reporting.  https://honestreporting.com/news-literacy/

 

Zakrewski and Lerman, “No Social Media is Safe: How election information spread on…”

See https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2020/11/07/pinterest-linkedin-election-disinfo/

 

Melius Weideman, called Fake News: The Role of Search Engines and Website Content,

http://digitalknowledge.cput.ac.za/handle/11189/6963

 

 

Educational / Info Literacy Sites

1. Generation Citizen, a civics education non-profit, www.generationcitizen.org

2. Poynter organization’s MediaWise online (information) literacy program, started in 2018.  “How to sort fact from fiction online.”  https://www.poynter.org/mediawise/

3. News Literacy Project (www.newslit.org).  Focus on educators.  Has downloadable Educator Booklet. A national non-profit educational association.

4. MediaWise for Seniors, a project of the Poynter Institute.  https://www.poynter.org/mediawise-for-seniors/

5. Common Sense Education.  https://www.commonsense.org/education/digital-citizenship/information-literacy 

6. www.firstdraftnews.org – non-profit, university-based group formed in 2017. CUNY Journalism school in NYC. “Protect society from harmful misinformation.”  Covers the societal issue of misinformation.  Has a free library of training materials.  Focuses on in-depth review of a few top stories. 

7. Stanford University Education Group. Civic Online Reasoning Curriculum.  https://cor.stanford.edu/   Free online lessons.

8. https://projectinfolit.org/   PIL is a nonprofit institute that conducts research studies nationally in the US about early adults and how they find, evaluate and select information for use in their courses. The website contains talks from experts, publications, research findings and how librarians are applying these findings in their outreach.

9. Elsevier.  https://researcheracademy.elsevier.com/learn    Free tools for guidance, knowledge and support to early and mid-career researchers. E-learning modules.

10. American Library Association definitions and standards.  https://libguides.ala.org/InformationEvaluation/Infolit