Media literacy: The ability "to ACCESS, ANALYZE, EVALUATE, CREATE, and ACT using all forms of communication." It is an essential part of an engaged, informed and effective electorate (National Association for Media Literacy Education).
Disinformation: This term was originally used to refer to "false information created by governments in wartime for military purposes and by totalitarian governments for political purposes during peacetime" (Encyclopedia of Espionage). Now we use this term to refer to information (from any source) that is intentionally wrong and meant to mislead.
Fake news: This term, which used to refer to "people knowingly portraying false information as if it were true" has, in recent years, been weaponized by political agendas. It can now refer to anything from online hoaxes to journalism that portrays politicians in a negative light (News Literacy Project). In fact, information scientists such as Claire Wardle and Hossein Derakhshan now avoid the term altogether: "We refrain from using the term ‘fake news’, for two reasons. First, it is woefully inadequate to describe the complex phenomena of information pollution. The term has also begun to be appropriated by politicians around the world to describe news organisations whose coverage they find disagreeable. In this way, it’s becoming a mechanism by which the powerful can clamp down upon, restrict, undermine and circumvent the free press. We therefore introduce a new conceptual framework for examining information disorder, identifying the three different types: mis-, dis- and mal-information.(Information Disorder).
Misinformation: Whereas "disinformation" refers to information that is deliberately false, "misinformation" refers to information which may be unintentionally incorrect. However unintentional, misinformation can still lead people astray--sometimes with dangerous results (i.e. as with widespread misinformation about HIV and how it is transmitted) (Garner's Modern English Usage, 289).
News literacy: According to the News Literacy Project, "news literacy" is "the ability to determine the credibility of news and other content, to identify different types of information, and to use the standards of authoritative, fact-based journalism to determine what to trust, share and act on" (News Literacy Project).
Propaganda: "The systematic dissemination of information, esp. in a biased or misleading way, in order to promote a political cause or point of view" (Oxford English Dictionary).
Sponsored content: Also known as "native advertising," sponsored content "resembles a news article but is paid for by someone trying to sell something." Because it is designed to look like news, "people can be fooled into thinking that what they're reading is straight reporting" (News Literacy Project).
An excellent, short video rich with strategies from FactCheck.org.
Politifact fact-checks claims by politicians at the federal, state, and local level, as well as political parties, PACs, and advocacy groups. Politifact rates the accuracy of these claims on its Truth-O-Meter, which goes from "True," "Mostly True," "Half True," "False," and "Pants on Fire."
The site is a project of the Annenberg Public Policy Center of the University of Pennsylvania. The 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.
The Washington Post's blogger Glenn Kessler runs Fact Checker which assesses claims made by politicians or political advocacy groups and gives out Pinochios based on its level of accuracy.
Open Secrets tracks money in U.S. politics and its effect on elections and public policy. It allows you to easily track campaign spending and contributions without laboring through the Federal Election Commission's website. Open Secrets also tracks the money that the private sector, industry groups, unions, and other lobbyists spend to lobby Congress.
The Sunlight Foundation is a nonprofit that lead the way for public accountability data journalism. Its Hall of Justice offers state-by-state data sets on criminal justice.
Snopes.com is the go-to destination for debunking strange internet rumors.
Links and their descriptions are from The Daily Dot's "The 2016 Guide to Political Fact-Checking on the Internet" by Amrita Khalid. First Published: Sep 21, 2016, Updated Apr 14, 2020 for relevance.
