Research Guides: Media &amp; Communication: Journalism & Fact Checking

Data, Background Info, & Report Websites

An important facet of fact-checking is knowing where to find accurate information. The sites below are generally trustworthy on a wide range of topics.

Census Bureau Data
Statistics about American population, housing, industry, and business; create reference and thematic maps, and search for specific data
Bureau of Labor Statistics
Check BLS announcements or set up an email alert for new reports.

CIA -The World Factbook
Information on countries and other world entities

Eurostat
A huge database covering all sorts of indicators for EU Member States and candidate countries. Most of the data sets are submitted to Eurostat from national statistical authorities.
Gallup Polling
Public opinion polls often referenced by the media. Polls are both national and international in scope and are used to identify opinion trends over time.
Google News Lab
Verification tools, image searching, geosearching and more.
IMF World Economic Outlook
Economic and financial data for countries around the world and predictions for the years ahead. Updated twice a year, in April and October.
Internet Archive (archive.org)
Includes texts, audio, moving images and software as well as archived web pages (The Wayback Machine), the TV Political Internet Archive, and more
IPU Parline Database
Data on Parliaments around the world including date of election, structure, composition, gender balance.
National Health Interview Survey
NHIS data on a broad range of health topics, collected through personal household interviews, used to track health status, health care access and progress toward achieving national health objectives
National Security Archive
Research on world affairs; declassified documents on security issues around the world.
Open Secrets
A watchdog group founded by the Center for Responsive Politics and the National Institute on Money in Politics
Pew Research Center
A nonpartisan fact tank that informs the public about the issues, attitudes and trends shaping the world.
Poynter Institute for Media Studies
News highlights dedicated to teaching and inspiring journalists and media leaders.
Refdesk
A searchable index of websites that have been reviewed for quality and credibility.
SIPRI Database
Data on military spending, arms transfers.
U.S. Customs and Immigration
Yearly “snapshots” of agency activities, statistics on “unaccompanied alien children,” “Use of Force” reports and more.
World Bank: Countries & Economies
Graph, map and compare more than 1,000 time series indicators from the World Development Indicators
World Health Organization
The data repository contains statistics on tuberculosis, child mortality rates, tobacco control and more, in six languages.
World Resources Institute's CAIT Climate Data Explorer
Data on emissions of greenhouse gases by country.

Resources for Evaluating Sources

Evaluating Sources
Check out the library's guide to understanding information sources, including detecting and avoiding fake news.

"Recap: Gravity Falls "Headhunters," (2015). newtcave.blogspot.com

Practice Analyzing an Article

Admiral Byrd's Operation Highjump
Let's determine whether or to what extent this article is trustworthy.

Recommended Books

Web Literacy for Student Fact Checkers by Mike Caulfield Designed to "help you become “web literate” by showing you the unique opportunities and pitfalls of searching for truth on the web. Crazy, right? This is the instruction manual to reading on the modern internet."
Call Number: Ebook (Free and Open)
Publication Date: 2017, updated 2021
Verified: How to Think Straight, Get Duped Less, and Make Better Decisions about What to Believe Online by Mike Caulfield; Sam Wineburg
Call Number: ZA4065 .C38 2023
An indispensable guide for telling fact from fiction on the internet--often in less than 30 seconds.
Asking the Right Questions: A Guide to Critical Thinking by Neil Browne; Stuart Keeley
Publication Date: 2006
This highly popular text helps students bridge the gap between simply memorizing or blindly accepting information, and the greater challenge of critical analysis and synthesis.