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RESEARCH GUIDES ACC Home Page

Fake News and Alternative Facts: Finding Accurate News: Finding Real News

This guide for students, faculty and staff investigates the phenomenon of fake news, and provides proactive strategies to help them recognize fake news, and identify accurate sources.

Real News

ACC News Databases

Trusted Online News Sources

More on SIFT Method

SIFT to find better resources!

CRAAP Test for Evaluating Sources

What is CRAAP?
CRAAP is a set of criteria designed by California State University, Chico to help you find the best sources for your school work. It is a good starting point for evaluating sources for academic purposes like papers, reports and speeches.

Is it CRAAP?
Use the following rubric to help you choose sources for your paper or other school work.

The CRAAP Test - check for currency, relevancy, authority, accuracy and purpose

Created by Austin Community College Library Services, 2017.

Be skeptical of all sources that you find whether online or in print. Use CRAAP or your own personal criteria to find sources that are appropriate for your purpose. Your criteria for sources for academic work may be very different than your criteria for sources for personal use. It all depends on the situation.

Media Bias Chart

Media Bias Chart

Journalism Code of Ethics

Real news is written by real journalists who adhere to a code of ethics for reporting. One way to ensure that you get accurate news is to make sure your news is written by professional journalists rather than content creators from the general public. When in doubt about an author, Google them and find out more.

The Society for Professional Journalists Code of Ethics outlines that journalists should:

  • Seek truth and report it
  • Minimize harm
  • Act independently
  • Be accountable and transparent

For a full description click here: SPJ Code of Ethics


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