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Fact-Checker
Verifies the accuracy of claims in news articles, books, and broadcasts before publication.
Did you know?
Time magazine, founded in 1923, had the working title 'Facts', and it helped create the job of the professional magazine fact-checker.
How subjects help
- Research Methods: Trace a claim back to its original source, like a report, public record or expert.
- Literature: Read closely to spot where wording twists a fact or makes it sound bigger than it is.
- Logic: Spot conclusions in an article that don't actually follow from the evidence given.
A famous name
Bill Adair: Journalist who founded the fact-checking website PolitiFact, which won a Pulitzer Prize in 2009.
Try it yourself: Check three claims before you share them
- Read each made-up post and ask three questions: Where's it from? What's missing? How does it make me feel?
- Write down who is behind each post, if you can tell at all.
- Write what is missing: a named source, a date, a photo that proves it, other news outlets reporting it.
- Decide for each: "trust it", "check more first" or "don't share". Give one reason for each.
Fact-checkers and editors trace every claim back to where it came from, look for what's left out, and check whether other reliable sources agree before anything is published.
Adapted from Full Fact: Misinformation toolkit.
Also try: Warm up your voice like an opera singer.
Known for it in
USA, Germany, UK, France, Sweden