Ritz Library: Fake News: Resources

Google Fact Check Tools
This tool allows you to easily browse and search for fact checks. You can search by keywords and see a list of matching claims and the corresponding fact checks. You can limit the search to certain publishers, and you can also browse recent fact checks by others.
LinkedIn
A professional networking website where you can look up the authors of articles and books to see if they're credible.
FactCheck
A product of the Annenberg Public Policy Center, this site is terrific for checking up on political claims.
Snopes.com
One of the oldest debunking sites on the Internet, Snopes.com focuses on urban legends, news stories and memes. They also cite their sources at the end of each debunking.
Politifact
The Pulitzer Prize-winning Politifact researches the claims of politicians and checks their accuracy.
Veracity (iPhone app)
Double check image sources and see where they came from.

The Onion
One of America's premier parody news sites.
The Borowitz Report
From humorist Andy Borowitz, a column parodying and commenting on current news trends
Dr. Joseph Mercola
Mercola is a doctor of osteopathy who has frequently been targeted by the FDA for promoting false, misleading and even dangerous medical advice. His site promotes products and his blog includes false and/or misleading information about medical topics.
The Daily Dot: Fake News Sites List
NOTE: This list is not exhaustive and may be updated at any time. A compiled list of fake news sites to watch out for.

ABCNews: When Fake News Makes Real News Headline
About a fake story which was treated as real news. Traces some of the pipeline for developing and distributing fake news
NPR: We Tracked Down a Fake-News Creator
About Jestin Coler, who began creating and distributing fake news in 2013.
NPR: Students Have Dismaying Inability to Tell Fake News Apart
Many students cannot tell fake news from real news.
The Atlantic: The Food Babe, Enemy of Chemicals
An examination of claims made by The Food Babe, with pointed analysis by professor Kevin Folta of the University of Florida
The New Yorker: The Operator (Dr. Oz)
An examination into Dr. Mehmet Oz, who both performs open heart surgery and hosts a television show on medical matters.
New York Times: How Fake News Goes Viral
From a single Tweeter with 35 friends to being shared over 400,000 times through various forums, this article traces a Tweet made November 9th, 2016.
CNN: Fake News, Real Violence
"Pizzagate" was a fake news story which connected a pizzeria with a child pornography ring allegedly run by Hillary Clinton and John Podesta. On Sunday, December 3, 2016, an armed shooter entered the pizzeria and fired a shot before being accosted by the police.
BBC.com: How do Fake News Sites Make Money?
An investigation into how profitable fake news can be.
Global Challenges: Inoculating the Public against Misinformation about Climate Change
Covers a new theory about combating fake news known as "attitudinal inoculation" and follows two studies testing this method.
The Atlantic: The Rise of Progressive "Fake News"
This interview with Snopes editor Brooke Binkowski examines the emotional pull of fake news

The Poynter Institute
The Poynter Institute develops resources for journalists and writers, plus offers resources on fact checking and media literacy for the general public.
Framework for Information Literacy for Higher Education
From the Association for College and Research Libraries (ACRL), a division of the American Library Association. This is an in-depth look at the factors that go into discerning the reliability of a claim.
AllSides
This site provides articles and an assessment of their bias, from left to right.
NPR: Five ways teachers are fighting fake news
Five in-class exercises used by real teachers for teaching about fake news
New York Times: Evaluating sources in a post-truth world
Geared for classroom use, this is a sample lesson plan on analyzing fake news
TED: How to tell fake news from real news
A brief selection of things to look for when determining the falsity of news.
NPR: How to Tell Real News from Fake News in 'Post-Truth' Era
This article discusses "post-truth", the idea that all news outlets will fail you eventually and it's impossible to know who to trust. It provides some commonsense advice on what to look for in a news outlet.

News outlet codes of ethics and standards

One of the ways in which a news source demonstrates its authenticity and responsibility to its readers is through a publicly accessible code of ethics or standards. A sample of various codes, mission statements and ethics handbooks are listed below.

NPR Ethics Handbook
News Leaders Association: Codes of Ethics
A comprehensive list of codes of ethics from many different news outlets and professional organizations dedicated to journalism
New York Times: Standards and Ethics
Society of Professional Journalists: Professional Code of Ethics
What makes real news real? In part, it's because of journalistic ethics. The Society of Journalistic Ethics provides a code of professional ethics for journalists to adhere to.