A Beginner's Guide to Social Media Fact-Checking

By Veronica Figueroa | October 2, 2020

SOCIAL MEDIA MARKETING

55% of U.S. adults get their news from social media either “often” or “sometimes.”

*Pew Research Center “Americans Are Wary of the Role Social Media Sites Play in Delivering the News” (2019)

Disinformation

Can Be Toxic

Here are a few ways to vet your news sources: • Pay attention to the domain and URL • Read the "About Us" section • Look at the quotes in a story • Look at who said the quotes • Check the comments • Reverse image search

Verify Credibility

with NewsGuard

This desktop browser extension displays credibility and transparency content scoring, which can help flag websites that peddle unsubstantiated claims. NewsGuard rates more than 4,000 websites responsible for approximately 95 percent of all the news and information consumed and shared in the United States.

Understand

Political Bias with

Media bias charts are an easy and convenient way to rate media sources in terms of political bias and reliability. Ad Fontes Media, a Colorado-based media watchdog organization, provides an interactive chart that makes it easy to check your sources.

Media Bias Charts