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Evaluating News Resources

General Guidelines for evaluating news sources, identifying misinformation, disinformation and avoiding propaganda

Election 2024 Information

 

ELECTION DAY IS NOVEMBER 5, 2024

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Check the Source. Confirm the Facts.

It is important for all voters to be informed voters

The spread of misinformation, disinformation and propaganda is a threat to the voting process and to democracy.

It is vital that voters learn how to sort the factual information from the misinformation.

Use the links and tools in this guide to find, and most importantly, verify, information related to the election.

*Election related information is meant to be persuasive and there will always be bias, but emphasizing facts, fact checking and understanding the intent and purpose of that bias will help in  becoming a better informed voter. *

Learn more about misinformation, disinformation and propaganda here: Evaluating News Sources

PolitiFact (https://www.politifact.com/)

This website is a less biased website with high factual reporting. It is known for it's Truth-O-Meter ratings system that ranges from true to "pants on fire". The fact checking can be browsed by issue, individual and rating among others. There is a special section of coverage for the 2024 Election.

Associated Press (AP): Election 2024 (https://apnews.com/hub/election-2024)

This site has high factual reporting and includes data on the elections such as campaign information and google search trends on election topics. 

FactCheck 2024 Election (https://www.factcheck.org)

This site monitors the factual accuracy of what is said by major U.S. political players in the form of TV ads, debates, speeches, interviews and news releases. There is evidence of high factual reporting and provides these facts with the least amount of bias.

Open Secrets (https://www.opensecrets.org)

Open Secrets is from the Center for Responsive Politics and is rated as a least biased source with very high factual reporting. This is a source used by fact checkers and fact checking sites with highly factual and well sourced reporting. Focusing on the funding of and by politicians the resource provides information on federal campaign contributions, lobbying data and analysis. 

Vote Smart (https://justfacts.votesmart.org)

This source is one of the least biased sources and is known to have high factual reporting. Provides consistent, factual information regardless of political party. Provides factual information on politician's which includes: biographies, issue positions, voting records, public statements, ratings and funding. Comments by politicians that have been proven false by reputable fact checking organizations are marked by a Bull icon.

Verifying Images

It is important to look carefully at images and research their source. Things to look out for:

  • blurred backgrounds
  • garbled text
  • weird fingers
  • architecture
  • hair impossibilities
  • overly rendered- especially faces/skin
  • accessories off
  • historical anomaly/anachronism
  • symmetry and complex patterns

Reverse Image Searching: A quick an easy way to validate information is to research the images that accompany it. An out of context or faked/photo-shopped image will immediately indicate that the information could be misleading or false. Reverse image searching is also useful in tracking where an image or story originated in order to better understand the information and intent. 

AI Detection: AI detecting websites are not 100% reliable in identifying AI images, but may be useful for checking source and context.

 

Additional Resources and Tools

Types of Information

It is vital to understand the types of misinformation and disinformation that exist in order to understand and combat them. Manipulated, false and deceitful information is pervasive, especially on social media. Satire can be difficult to determine at first glance. Information is often misleading and misinterpreted due to a lack or loss of context. The misinformation matrix below will help you determine the characteristics of these different types. Propaganda is especially dangerous in influencing voters.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

From: First Draft News

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