Fake News

The following sites are useful for a general review of specific news stories and claims: 

• AllSides -- aggregates news stories from the left, center, and right and shares them side by side. Be aware that categories are determined by users and therefore reflect public perception biases as opposed to content-level bias.
• FactCheck.org -- a nonpartisan, nonprofit “consumer advocate” that monitor the factual accuracy of what is said publicly by major U.S. political players. A project of the Annenberg Public Policy Center of the University of Pennsylvania.
• Is This True? -- a fake news database created and maintained by Politico.
• Politifact -- rates statements and stories using a Truth-o-meter scale. Owned by the nonprofit organization Poynter Institute for Media Studies.
• Punditfact -- sister-site of Politifact. Focuses on specific statements made by political pundits and rates each on the Truth-o-meter scale.
• Snopes -- the oldest and largest fact-checking site online.
• The Fact Checker -- provides background and context to select news stories and issues. Created and maintained by The Washington Post.
• Web Literacy for Student Fact-Checkers --an easy-to-navigate ebook with practical tips and information for fact-checking. Written by Michael Caulfield, Director of Blended and Networked Learning at Washington State University, Vancouver, CA.
• Know Your Meme -- researches and documents Internet memes and viral phenomena.
• Media Bias/Fact Check -- uses a methodology (published on the site) to rate sources based on their political biases. Includes local-level newspapers among other publications.
• Hoax-Slayer -- focuses on email hoaxes, identity theft scams, and spam.
• Real Or Satire? -- allows users to copy and paste a URL to determine if it is satirical.

Doctored or fake images are just another way we might be mislead. Use the tools below to determine the origin of images.

• FotoForensics -- allows users to analyze photos and images to determine if a picture is real or computer graphics, if it was modified, and even how it was modified by uploading a file or pasting in a URL.
• Google Image Search -- by uploading an image, users can generally identify the author/artist of an image and find where similar images are posted and used.
• TinEye -- users upload an image or paste a url of an image to find all the places it appears online.
• Veracity -- a Reverse Image Search app for the i-phone.
• The Hoax Photo Archive -- provides a range of images - some real and some altered - along with details about determining the origin. Users can browse based on time periods, technique used in fakery, and general categories.

Below are resources to assist with identifying and tracking fake news on specific social media sites.

Facebook

• Visual Junk News Aggregator -- tracks the distribution of fake news on Facebook.
• Blue Feed, Red Feed -- an interactive tool from The Wall Street Journal that allows you to "See Liberal Facebook and Conservative Facebook, Side by Side."

Twitter

• Hoaxy -- a visualization tool that depicts the spread of claims and fact-checking on Twitter.