Claims / Specific Evidence Evaluation

Investigating Claims / Specific Evidence

Even if a website, author, and article seem to be pretty trustworthy, it is important to evaluate claims and specific evidence.

1) Try Fact-Checking Websites

See if others have already fact checked claims. Search well-established fact-checking websites (IFCN Signatories)

  • In Google, you can search across multiple fact-checkers at once. When searching for keywords or specific details from a claim, add site:factcheck.org OR site:politifact.com OR site:www.washingtonpost.com/news/fact-checker OR site:www.snopes.com

Example:

  • In Google, searched: j.k. rowling forbes billionaire site:factcheck.org OR site:politifact.com OR site:www.washingtonpost.com/news/fact-checker OR site:www.snopes.com
  • This returned two analyses: one from Politifact and one from Snopes, both indicating that stories being shared related to this are partially true.

If there are no matches for your website / publication, move on to the next strategy.

2) Find Original Sources of Claims

Is the article the original source of the claim?

  • The article might be if the author has done investigative reporting or is sharing original research that they have conducted themselves.

More often, though, general web articles include evidence from other sources.

  • If available, click on hyperlinks associated with claims to investigate and evaluate original sources.
  • If there are no hyperlinks, check to see if references are provided for the article and then search for those.
  • If the name of an book/article/etc. or person is mentioned in the text as the source, search for it.
  • If there is a direct quote, copy-and-paste the quote and search for it in Google. Alternatively, highlight the quote, and right-click (or ALT + tap) to search in Google.

Can you find the original source of the claim and read it yourself?

  • How would you evaluate this original source of the claim?

3) Use Reverse Image Search for Images

Sometimes images are used as evidence to support a story. They are the claim. Use a reverse image search to verify the original source of the image. Is it what you expected?

Red flags to look out for include the following:

  • The image has been used out of context. It is a real photo but from a different time and/or place.
  • The image has been cropped so that it does not provide the full information of the original photo.
  • The photo has been altered to misconstrue information.