Evaluating News: Fact-Checking

Use this Newmark J-School Accuracy Checklist for Reporters. Make an Accuracy Checklist a part of your reporting process.

Fact-Checking guides relating to politics:

Confirmation Bias

"Confirmation bias, or the selective collection of evidence, is our subconscious tendency to seek and interpret information and other evidence in ways that affirm our existing beliefs, ideas, expectations, and/or hypotheses. Therefore, confirmation bias is both affected by and feeds our implicit biases. It can be most entrenched around beliefs and ideas that we are strongly attached to or that provoke a strong emotional response." 

“Confirmation and Other Biases.” Resource Library. Facing History and Ourselves. Accessed March 11, 2021. https://www.facinghistory.org/resource-library/facing-ferguson-news-literacy-digital-age/confirmation-and-other-biases.

How to Thwart Your Confirmation Bias

• “*Counter-argue your story hypothesis,” or source’s assertion.
• Actively seek out contrary information.
• Rigorously test and verify every fact or assertion of fact before you publish, so you’ll be able to stand by the accuracy of your work later.

From Twenty ways to cultivate an open mind, From Overcoming Bias, A Journalist's Guide to culture & context