Get your facts right!

By: Lisa H.

In a world that is dominated by a number of outside influences that can alter opinion and thought processes, it’s important to be vigilant in teaching our students about the importance of fact checking. Fake news is becoming increasingly common, especially online, because of this having the skills to pick out, and decipher credible news and resources is essential.

We all wish to be proactive digital citizens, it is a hot topic in countries all over the world. Our students are very thoughtful when it comes to what they post online. Now it’s time to take the next step and continue to think critically about information we come across online. The internet is a complex place, it brings problems including misinformation, however, it’s also a powerful tool that will help to empower students with factual information that is unbiased and accurate.

An important first step is providing your students with the resources they need to accurately fact check. Through doing this they will be able to evaluate any piece of digital media that they come across with confidence.

5 sites to get your facts straight!

1. Media Matters - Media Matters posts rapid-response items as well as longer research and analytic reports documenting conservative misinformation throughout the media.

2. Truth or Fiction - Find information about eRumors, fake news, misinformation, warnings, deals, requests for assistance, myths, hoaxes, virus warnings, and email-circulated humorous or motivating stories quickly and easily.

3. Politifact - Score the accuracy of elected officials' statements with the help of Politifact. "Run by the independent newspaper Tampa Bay Times editors and reporters, Politifact has a number of tools such as a Truth-O-Meter which scores material to be real, mostly true, half true or fake. Time to eliminate the mountains of fake news!

4. Snopes - Fact-checking with snopes illuminates the path to evidence-based and contextualized research. Often disinformation interferes with facts and readers may not know who to believe. This is a great resource to encourage critical analysis.

5. Winno - Winno is an app where you can get all the important updates in one place, live. it’s mission is to fix the news. It’s broken and doesn’t always represent what’s true. They’re trying to build the news from the ground up!