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Fake News, Propaganda, and Information Literacy

Offering a brief introduction into "fake news" and providing you with the tools for identifying and combating it.

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Fact-Checking Sites: 

  • FactCheck.org -  Annenberg Public Policy Center of the University of Pennsylvania's nonpartisan, nonprofit “consumer advocate” for voters that aims to reduce the level of deception and confusion in U.S. politics. Check out the post That Chain E-Mail Your Friend Sent to You is (Likely) Bogus. Seriously for its Key Characteristics of Bogusness and the Viral Spiral page for claims previously checked.
  • AllSides: While not a fact-checking site, AllSides curates stories from right, center and left-leaning media so that readers can easily compare how bias influences reporting on each topic. 
  • ProPublica: This independent, nonprofit newsroom has won several Pulitzer Prizes, including the 2016 Prize for Explanatory Reporting. ProPublica produces investigative journalism in the public interest.
  • Craig Silverman’s BuzzFeed blog: The founding editor for BuzzFeed, Canada has been writing for many years for a variety of publications on media accuracy and verification issues.
  • Duke Reporters' Lab: Fact Checking - The Reporters’ Lab maintains a database of global fact-checking sites. You can use the map to explore sites around the world.
  • Hoaxy - Hoaxy visualizes the spread of claims and related fact checking online. A claim may be a fake news article, hoax, rumor, conspiracy theory, satire, or even an accurate report. Anyone can use Hoaxy to explore how claims spread across social media. You can select any matching fact-checking articles to observe how those spread as well.
  • Media Bias/Fact Check -  An independent online media outlet. MBFC News is dedicated to educating the public on media bias and deceptive news practices.
  • OpenSecrets.org - Run by the nonpartisan, independent and nonprofit, the Center for Responsive Politics, OpenSecrets is the most comprehensive resource for federal campaign contributions, lobbying data and analysis available. 
  • Politifact - This Pulitzer Prize winning website rates the accuracy of claims by elected officials. Run by editors and reporters from the independent newspaper Tampa Bay Times, Politicfact features the Truth-O-Meter that rates statements as “True,” “Mostly True,” “Half True,” “False,” and “Pants on Fire.”
  • Snopes - Since way back in the 90s, Snopes has been dispelling urban legends, folklore, myths, rumors, and misinformation. This independent, nonpartisan website run by professional researcher and writer David Mikkelson researches urban legends and other rumors. It is often the first to set the facts straight on wild fake news claims.
  • 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.

Browser Plug-ins:

Consider installing one of the browser plugins to flag fake news in real time.