All guides: Fact Checking: Other resources for fact checking

Other fact checking resources

General

AAP FactCheck
Australian Associated Press (AAP) fact checks social media, political and media information.
BBC Verify
Comprises of a specialist team of journalists who use various techniques to fact-check information, whether it be in the form of text, images or videos.
The Conversation: Articles on fact checking
Academics write about the fact checking of information in various contexts, such as news and media, politics and government, education and technology.
eSafety Commissioner: Fake news
The Australian government's eSafety Commissioner provides information on fake news and how to spot it.
Full Fact
Based in London, fact checks and corrects misinformation in the news, as well as claims or statements that spread on social media.
Google fact check tools: Explorer
Check if a webpage's information is fake or factual.
Hoaxy
Created by the team at Indiana University's Observatory on Social Media research center, this tool visualizes the spread of claims (including fake news, hoaxes and conspiracy theories) and related fact checking online.
How to spot fake news
Tips from the International Federation of Library Associations and Institutions (IFLA). You can download the PDF or image version.
Lead Stories
Fact checks stories, videos or images going viral on Facebook, Instagram, TikTok and other social platforms. The aim is to debunk misinformation that misleads and deceives with falsehoods and inaccuracies.
Media Bias / Fact Check
Checks and rates the bias, factual accuracy and credibility of large and small media sources.
Reporters' Lab
Center for journalism research in the Sanford School of Public Policy at Duke University in the USA. Their core projects center on fact checking information.
Snopes
Fact checks the accuracy of information across various areas, such as news and politics, entertainment, sport, popular culture and the environment. Independent and member of the International Fact Checking Network (IFCN), Snopes claims it is compliant with their standards in the fight to address misinformation online.
Tools that fight disinformation online
Search for tools that assist with fact-checking. You can search by name, type or keyword.
Web literacy for student fact-checkers / by Mike Caulfield
A practical e-book guide for fact-checking. Shows how to use date filters to find the source of viral content, how to assess the reputation of a scientific journal, how to see if a tweet is really from the famous person you think it is or from an impostor. and much more. This book is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

News and newspapers

News articles

Australia & New Zealand Newsstream (ProQuest)
Provides Access to the full text of major Australian and New Zealand newspapers. It includes regional and rural radio transcripts and news from current affairs television programs such as the ABC 7.30 Report.
Factiva
Factiva is the major source for Australian newspapers - both the Fairfax and Murdoch press, and has exclusive rights to the Australian Financial Review & the Business Review Weekly. It is a Dow Jones & Reuters Company product and offers content from over 9,000 sources of information. Access limited to 5 concurrent users.

AFP Fact Check
Aims to provide accurate, balanced and impartial coverage of news wherever it happens in the world. A department within news agency Agence France-Presse (AFP).

Video news

TV News (Informit)
TVNews indexes Australian television news, current affairs and selected documentaries from the free-to-air networks with links to the digitised video content. All individual stories from a particular broadcast are indexed with a detailed synopsis. TVNews is updated daily, with stories appearing on an evening news broadcast generally being available for access the next morning.

Historical Australian newspapers

Trove Digitised Newspapers
Australian newspapers dating back to 1803-1954.

Images

3 new ways to check images and sources online
Learn how Google's tools can help you investigate if information or images are fake or factual.
Fake images are getting harder to spot. Here’s a field guide.
Tips from The Washington Post on how to spot fake images.
Google fact check tools: Explorer - Images
Check if an image is fake or factual.
Google Images
Do a reverse image search. Upload an image or paste the image's URL link.
Google Lens
Identify images and learn what they are all about. Provides contextually-relevant results. Upload an image or paste the image's URL link.
How to tell if a picture is photoshopped
Advice on how to identify if an image has been digitally manipulated to serve the interests of fake news.
How to use Google reverse image search to fact-check images
Common Sense Media provides a video on how to use Google's reverse image search to fact-check an image.
TinEye
Do a reverse image search. Upload an image or paste the image's URL link.

Note: A reverse image search lets you locate where else online an image has appeared on. This can help you to identify inconsistencies with the image or how the image has been previously used. This knowledge can then allow you to determine if the image is genuine or fake.

Politics and government

FactCheck.org
Nonpartisan, non-profit voter advocate that monitors the factual accuracy of what is said by major political players in the USA on TV ads, debates, speeches, interviews and news releases.
FactCheck.org [YouTube channel]
Official YouTube channel of FactCheck.org.
Hansard (Parliament of Australia)
Aims to provide an accurate, substantially verbatim account of the proceedings of the Australian parliament and its committees.
PolitiFact
American nonprofit project operated by the Poynter Institute in Florida. Fact checks the accuracy of claims or statements made by elected officials, candidates, their staff, lobbyists, interest groups and others involved in US politics.
PunditFact
Related to PolitiFact and also a project of the Poynter Institute, PunditFact checks the accuracy of claims or statements made by political pundits, columnists, bloggers, analysts, hosts and guests of talk shows, and others in the media.
The Washington Post: Fact Checker
Fact checks the accuracy of claims or statements made by US political figures.

Statistics

ABS (Australian Bureau of Statistics)
Australia's official national statistical agency. Their website provides access to key statistics on topics including the economy, environment & energy, industry, people and regional.
ABS Media Centre
Great resource for journalists with links to key statistics, media releases and information to assist in the interpretation and reporting of statistics.
data.gov.au
Find and access public datasets from Government.

Companies and industries

IBIS World
Australian company and industry reports, in addition to Chinese industry reports. Provides key statistics and analysis on market characteristics, operating conditions, current and forecast performance, major industry participants and more.
MarketLine
Provides international business insights reports, company reports, industry reports, SWOT analysis, Porter’s Five Forces analysis and PESTLE (country) analysis. Although has a global focus, it also contains Australian content.

CRAAP and SIFT

You can evaluate the credibility and reliability of information using the CRAAP and SIFT methods.

CRAAP method

RMIT Learning Lab | Evaluate information sources using CRAAP
Learn how to apply the CRAAP (Currency, Relevance, Authority, Accuracy, Purpose) method to the information your find.
Key Transferable Skills | 1.1 Critical evaluation – CRAAP transcript
Produced by RMIT Library, this chapter from the e-book, 'Key Transferable Skills', covers the CRAAP method in detail.

Study Help: Evaluating Information (3:16 mins) by University of South Australia (YouTube).

SIFT method

RMIT Learning Lab | Engaging critically with social media
Learn how to apply the SIFT (Stop, Investigate, Find, Trace) method to the information your find.
Learning Lab Contextualised Content | Transcript: Using the SIFT method presentation
Produced by RMIT Library in partnership with other expert staff at RMIT, this chapter from the e-book, 'Learning Lab Contextualised Content', covers the SIFT method in detail.

SIFT Method: Evaluating Sources (3:40 mins) by Utah Valley University, Fulton Library (YouTube).

Additional information

Assignments: get started | Evaluate information sources
This page, from the 'Assignments: get started' guide by RMIT Library, covers how to evaluate information sources using the CRAAP and SIFT methods.

Library subject guides

Fact Checking