Skip to main content
When verification counts: Tips and tools to try

As journalists, social media can be one of our best newsgathering tools. It opens the door to diverse sources as well as valuable photo and video content, but it is also full of pitfalls if you aren’t careful.

By Amy Kristin Sanders
Associate Professor, Journalism and Media, University of Texas at Austin

How To Detect Fake News With These Tools and Techniques

Through links to studies and reports as well as applications, journalism educators share several concrete tools readers can use to detect fake news. 
A critical thinking model is provided to show how using cognitive skills to think through content, analyze and make a decision as to what constitutes a fake story is the best method of detecting fake news.
However, there are other tools being created every day to combat this issue, like the Media Bias/Fact Check extension for Google Chrome, BS Detector, Fake News Check, Baloney Detector, Source Inspector and Fake News Blocker.

Transcription: There’s an app for that

Technology has made it easier than ever for reporters to connect with their sources, whether they’re across the street or halfway around the world. With so many digital recording options, it takes no more than a few clicks and swipes to record an interview with a source. The biggest problem reporters face when it comes to digital interviews, however, is how to deal with all the recorded content once the interview is over. Turning those audio files into useable text isn’t always easy. Transcription is a time-consuming and often costly part of the job.

Appointing federal judges and U.S. attorneys: An explainer with resources

While the presidential appointment process for a Supreme Court seat draws national attention, few take notice of federal judge appointments. There are hundreds of federal judges and these appointments, too, are for life. Because the judges wield significant power, they are at the core of a president’s legacy. 
Federal courts have jurisdiction over a wide variety of crimes and civil disputes outlined in the Constitution and other federal statutes, including election fraud, weapons trafficking and terrorism.

How to tell good research from bad: 13 questions journalists should ask

Experienced journalists use research to ground their work and fact-check claims made by politicians, policymakers and others. Many journalists, however, are not trained in research methods and statistical analysis. Some have difficulty differentiating between a quality study and a questionable one.
Click here to see the full tip sheet.

 

What the unemployment rate does – and doesn’t – say about the economy

The unemployment rate gets most of the attention, but the monthly jobs report contains lots of other data that can provide a fuller picture of the economy.
Simply being out of work isn’t enough for a person to be counted as unemployed; he or she also has to be available to work and actively looking for work (or on temporary layoff). In any given month, the unemployment rate can rise or fall based not just on how many people find or lose jobs, but on how many join or leave the active labor force.

Municipal bonds: A reporter’s tip sheet

Munis, as they’re known, enable a state, county, city, housing authority or other local government to raise money for public projects — usually infrastructure. But unlike the bonds private firms sell to raise cash, the interest is free from federal income tax, meaning, in effect, that munis are federally subsidized. They are also often exempt from local taxes. These tax benefits allow issuers (also known as borrowers) to attract investors at lower rates; in financial parlance, it makes borrowing cheaper for local governments.

Stop killing your social stories with bad headlines and images

No matter how great your content is, if you don’t package it properly, few will read or share it. 
Writing a great headline and choosing a dynamic main image for every article matters more now than ever — on a crowded Facebook feed that’s already turning out link posts for video, you’re playing a zero-sum game for your audience’s attention. That headline and image are frequently all anybody’s going to look at.

Property Taxes 101: A primer for journalists

So the city you cover is considering raising property taxes and your editor wants a story today. If you’re like many journalists, you didn’t get a lot of training in college on municipal budgets. Journalist’s Resource offers some great information for writing about property taxes, what readers need to know about an impending increase in their property taxes and calculations for showing the impact on individual property owners.

Typography for news design - a free course

Poynter NewsU offers a course on typography for news design - the basic principles of typography. The session includes interactive activities to help participants learn how to correct common mistakes and apply standard rules of design.

Subscribe to Tools