Finding Reliable News Sources Research Guide

PolitiFact is a fact-checking website that rates the accuracy of claims by elected officials and others on its Truth-O-Meter.

Monitors the factual accuracy of what is said by major U.S. political players in the form of TV ads, debates, speeches, interviews, and news releases.

The Truth Behind The Rhetoric

Media Bias/Fact Check (MBFC News) is an independent online media outlet. MBFC News is dedicated to educating the public on media bias and deceptive news practices.

See issues and political news with news bias revealed. Non-partisan, crowd-sourced technology shows all sides so you can decide.

The definitive Internet reference source for urban legends, folklore, myths, rumors, and misinformation.

The Sift, News Literacy Project’s free weekly newsletter for educators — delivered during the school year — explores timely examples of misinformation, addresses media and press freedom topics and discusses social media trends and issues. It also includes links, discussion prompts and activities for use in the classroom.

The Media Manipulation Casebook is a digital research platform linking together theory, methods, and practice for mapping media manipulation and disinformation campaigns. This resource is intended for researchers, journalists, technologists, policymakers, educators, and civil society organizers who want to learn about detecting, documenting, describing, and debunking misinformation.

Think you can beat misinformation? Try this comprehensive test of misinformation susceptibility. It only takes 2-5 minutes!

The University of Cambridge has released a new game designed to help people sort fact from cleverly faked fiction when it comes to online information about Covid-19.
Players of Go Viral! assume the role of a malicious actor who is on a mission to spread misinformation online about the global health pandemic. The online game has been designed to introduce members of the public to the wide variety of techniques criminals use to circulate fake news, particularly on social media.

Spotting deepfakes isn’t as easy as you might think.
What if I told you that the first manned mission to the moon ended in disaster instead of success?
What if President Nixon himself told you? Would you believe it?

The quiz where you examine images of real social media content and decide whether it's from a legitimate account or an internet troll.

Fake news is everywhere, but it can be difficult to spot. Politifact has come up with 10 questions to ask about sources when you are suspicious of a report. Their quiz isn’t foolproof, but can serve as a starting point when navigating the news.

Test your ability to classify 10 news statements as either factual or opinion. Then see how you did in comparison with a nationally representative group of 5,035 randomly selected U.S. adults surveyed online between February 22 and March 4, 2018.

In this game you take on the role of fake news-monger. Drop all pretense of ethics and choose the path that builds your persona as an unscrupulous media magnate. But keep an eye on your ‘followers’ and ‘credibility’ meters. Your task is to get as many followers as you can while slowly building up fake credibility as a news site. But watch out: you lose if you tell obvious lies or disappoint your supporters!

We can all make better choices about the information we consume, share and act on. But can you tell the difference between social media posts that are false or misleading and those that are credible?
Test your news literacy skills with this quiz and help stop the flood of misinformation.