Resources for combating fake news

Many classes are undertaking their second-semester research projects and working on the challenging skill of evaluating sources for their reliability and credibility. But "fake news" presents a new problem in critiquing sources, and with the rise in frequency of false statements by prominent people, fact-checking is even more essential for students and teachers alike. Here are a few reputable sources for checking facts found anywhere from social media shares to national news sources

Politifact.com Winner of a Pulitzer Prize in 2008 for their coverage of that year's election, Politifcat. checks the accuracy of claims by politicians and other political leaders or activists and rates it on the Truth-O-Meter, from "true" to "pants on fire". They have a detailed methodology for their fact-checking listed on their website.

FactCheck.org A project of the Annenberg Public Policy Center of the University of Pennsylvania. They focus on presidential/candidate statements during election years, on Senate statements during mid-term elections, and on Congressional actions in the off-years. They also detail their fact-checking methodology on their website.

The FactChecker (from the Washington Post). Led by journalist Glenn Kessler, the FactChecker rates political statements from one to four Pinocchios, based on its accuracy, and awards a Gepetto checkmark to the most accurate claims.

This is also a good infographic, from the IFLA: