News & Fact-Checking

Most important points from this article:

• Think about your own opinions and biases. The more you engage with content you already agree with, the more you will get of it, and the stronger your opinions can become about it. Instead, think about what other viewpoints exist and search for content from their side. One way to do this is to seek out content from reputable news organizations across the political spectrum.
• Second, pay attention to where you get information. Is all your news coming from social media? Research shows that Americans who rely on social media as their main source of news are less knowledgeable than those who get news from almost any other news source.  Pick a news website or two and sign up for their alerts instead.
• Continue to evaluate the content on your “For You” page. You don’t need to stop using TikTok, but do keep looking for those clues about whether information is credible: Who is it from? Is it a journalist, a news organization? Or maybe it was a news influencer, someone who has a large following on social media for sharing current events but who is not necessarily a journalist. Do they cite and link to sources?
• If you can’t find this information, you should search about the topic online. If you don’t find any reputable news organizations reporting on it, you may want to think again about trusting it and sharing it.

What is news?

Information that informs you, through fair and impartial reporting, about local, national and international events, issues and people of significance or of interest.

What is “straight” or “hard” news?

Journalism that presents all relevant facts, context and information available at the time in as impartial or unbiased a manner as possible. Straight news should give readers, viewers or listeners enough information and points of view to make up their own mind about the topic or issue.

What is opinion journalism?

Pieces of journalism that, unlike news reports, do not seek to avoid bias but rather are intended to share an opinion or perspective and, often, to try to persuade the audience to embrace a point of view about an issue or subject. They include op-eds, columns, editorials and editorial or political cartoons. At reputable news organizations, pieces of opinion journalism are still expected to be based on accurate information and should be clearly marked to help the public avoid confusing them with straight news reports.

How can I quickly evaluate sources for signs of credibility?

Check out the infographic “Is it legit? Five steps for vetting a news source” for five quick steps for checking credibility plus a list of trust busters that indicate you should immediately look elsewhere for credible news.

The News Literacy Project. (2025, October). “Biased,” “boring” and “bad”: Unpacking perceptions of news media and journalism among U.S. teens. https://newslit.org/newsand-research/teens-and-news-media/