Library Research Guides: Misinformation, Propaganda, and Misleading News: Checking a claim

Fact Checking Links

FactCheck
A product of the Annenberg Public Policy Center, this site is terrific for checking up on political claims.
Hoax-Slayer
Similar to Snopes but tighter in scope, Hoax-Slayer focuses on email hoaxes, identity theft scams and spam.
LinkedIn
A professional networking website where you can look up the authors of articles and books to see if they're credible.
Politifact
The Pulitzer Prize-winning Politifact researches the claims of politicians and checks their accuracy.
Snopes.com
One of the oldest debunking sites on the Internet, Snopes.com focuses on urban legends, news stories and memes. the also cite their sources at the end of each debunking.
The Washington Post Fact-Checker
While focused primarily on political facts, it covers specific claims in-depth and with plenty of cross-referencing.

When you open up a news article in your browser, open a second, empty tab. Use that second window to look up claims, author credentials and organizations that you come across in the article.
Fake news spans across all kinds of media - printed and online articles, podcasts, YouTube videos, radio shows, even still images.
As Mad-Eye Moody said in Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, "Constant Vigilance!" Always be ready to fact check.
Even the best researchers will be fooled once in a while. If you find yourself fooled by a fake news story, use your experience as a learning tool.

The Poynter Institute
The Poynter Institute develops resources for journalists and writers, plus offers resources on fact checking and media literacy for the general public.
The News Literacy Project Facebook Page
A nonprofit whose purpose is to provide tools and resources to middle and high school students (and their classrooms) on media literacy
Hoaxy
Hoaxy visualizes the spread of claims and related fact checking online. Use Hoaxy to explore how claims spread across social media. Hoaxy is a joint project of the Indiana University Network Science Institute (IUNI) and the Center for Complex Networks and Systems Research (CNetS).
AllSides
AllSides is a website that rates the bias of news stories and other articles, labeling them according to where they fit on a political spectrum from left to center to right.