Research Guides
How to Evaluate Sources
Used and adapted with permission from Sarah Bonner at Chowan University
How to find better coverage
Find better coverage
Disregard the source you are getting the information from and look for articles from trusted sources that talk about topic.
Research the claim, not the source.
News search cross-check
Check other news organizations to see if they are reporting the same story. The fast way to do that is to search on Google News or another news search engine. Discover if other news organizations are reporting this story and what are they saying. Investigate the news organizations that are reporting on this source. Do they lean conservative or liberal?
Use fact-checking sites
Save time by checking if the claim has already been investigated by a professional fact-checker. I recommend the Google Fact Check Tool because it searches multiple fact-checking websites.
- Google Fact Check ToolsSearch different fact-checking sites to see if your claim is accurate.
- PolitiFactA Pulitzer prize winning fact-checking project that is run by Poynter Institute for Media Studies.
- SnopesOne of the oldest fact-checking websites on the Internet. Snopes pre-dates Google!
- FactCheck.orgA nonprofit fact-checking project that is run by the Annenberg Public Policy Center.