Speaker A
So now you know how to investigate sources, but investigate what? It’s not always immediately clear.
Learn how to find the original source of news stories to verify facts and avoid misinformation.
Key Takeaways
- Always trace news back to the original reporting source for accurate verification.
- Secondary sources may not have verified facts themselves.
- Wikipedia can be a useful tool to evaluate the credibility of news sources.
- Trustworthy original sources allow you to engage meaningfully with the content.
- Avoid spreading misinformation by confirming the authenticity of reports.
What the video covers
- Investigate the source of information before reacting or discussing.
- Example used: an article from Vulture about Canadian schools banning '13 Reasons Why'.
- Recognize when a publication is reporting on another source rather than original reporting.
- Check the original source by following links provided in articles.
- Use Wikipedia to assess the credibility and reputation of the original source.
- Understand the importance of going upstream to the original reporting source.
- Verify that the original source is trustworthy before investing time in the article.
- Original reporting sources are those where the writers verify the facts themselves.
Full Transcript — Download SRT & Markdown
Speaker A
Take this example. An article from a publication called Vulture. It says that some Canadian schools have banned discussion of ’13 Reasons Why’.
Speaker A
But before we get outraged about this, before we start to have a discussion, let’s figure out whether it’s true.
Speaker A
So, we go to do our original trick, our just add Wikipedia trick, we pull out the site name, we’re going to throw that into Wikipedia but we stop, and we stop because we realize Vulture isn’t really the source of this reporting.
Speaker A
Down here at the end of this first paragraph, we see that it’s according to CBC News.
Speaker A
The information in this article probably isn’t verified by reporters at Vulture. They’re just reporting on other reporting that the CBC has already done.
Speaker A
So, we have to get closer to the original source by clicking the link. And here we find the original story.
Speaker A
Now that we’re at the source, we still check what the source is, and what you’ll see if we plug this into Wikipedia it says ‘one of Canada’s most popular news sites’.
Speaker A
It’s long established, it’s well resourced, it’s got a good reputation. The point is we go upstream to the source till we get to the point where the people doing the writing are the people verifying the facts.
Speaker A
We call this the original reporting source. In this case, that original reporting source is trustworthy, so now we can invest our time in the article and start thinking about the issue.
Topics:online verificationdigital media literacyoriginal sourcefact checkingnews verificationmedia literacyCBC NewsVulture13 Reasons Whyinvestigating sources
