Lesson: Beyond basic fact-checking

This lesson plan is designed for media trainers to help journalists and students master the essential skills of verification, contextualisation, and advanced fact-checking.

Sessions timetable

09:00–10:00 – Session 1: The foundation of fact-checking

• Aims: To understand the fundamental responsibility of a journalist to verify information and the consequences of getting it wrong.
• Presentation: Using the first article, define what a fact is in a journalistic context. Discuss the concept of the best obtainable version of the truth. Highlight that every word, name, date, and claim must be verified before publication.
• Activity: The trainer provides a short, 200-word news snippet riddled with five subtle factual errors (e.g., a misspelled name of a public official, an incorrect date for a well-known event, a wrong job title). Participants must identify and correct them using only reliable primary sources within 15 minutes.
• Discussion: Why do we sometimes skip fact-checking? Discuss the pressures of the 24-hour news cycle versus the long-term damage to a news brand’s reputation.

10:00–11:00 – Session 2: The power of context

• Aims: To move beyond binary true or false checks and understand how a fact can be technically true but fundamentally misleading without context.
• Presentation: Present essential questions every journalist should ask through the lens of context. Explain how omitting the Why or How can distort the What. Show examples of how statistics can be manipulated (e.g., a 50% increase could mean 1 case becoming 2, or 1,000 becoming 1,500).
• Activity: Give participants a controversial 10-word quote from a politician. Their task is to find the full transcript or video of the speech and write a three-paragraph summary that explains the circumstances and intent behind the quote.
• Discussion: How does providing context help the audience make informed decisions? Can a journalist be objective if they choose which context to include?

11:00-11:15 – Break

11:15–12:45 – Session 3: Advanced verification

• Aims: To introduce advanced techniques for verifying digital media and dealing with sophisticated misinformation.
• Presentation: Use the beyond basic fact-checking material on MHM (link above). Focus on the five pillars of verification – provenance, source, date, location, and motivation. Introduce tools like reverse image search and metadata analysis.
• Activity: Provide a viral image or video clip from social media. Participants must work in pairs to determine: 1. Where it was first posted; 2. If the location matches the claim (using Google Street View); 3. If the weather/shadows match the stated date.
• Discussion: The ethics of using user generated content (UGC). When is a source verified enough to go to air/print?

12:45–13:45 – Lunch

13:45–15:00 – Session 4: Identifying bias and motivation

• Aims: To teach participants how to scrutinise the source of information, not just the information itself.
• Presentation: Discuss the motivation pillar. Why is this person telling me this now? Explain the difference between an independent expert and a lobbyist. Highlight the importance of seeking out the missing voices in a story to ensure balance.
• Activity: Provide a news release from an advocacy group. Participants must map out the stakeholders: Who benefits from this story? Who is harmed? Who is not mentioned? They must then find two alternative sources that offer a different perspective.
• Discussion: Is balance always a 50/50 split? Discussion on false equivalence – giving equal weight to a fact and a debunked conspiracy.

15:00-15:15 – Break

15:15–16:15 – Session 5: Communicating the check to the audience

• Aims: To learn how to present fact-checking results in a way that is engaging and transparent for the audience.
• Presentation: Look at successful fact-checking models (e.g., Full Fact or Truth-O-Meter). Discuss the importance of showing your work – linking to sources so the audience can verify the verification.
• Activity: Take a popular urban myth or common piece of local misinformation. Participants must write a 60-second script for a social media video or radio bulletin that debunks the myth, explains the context, and cites the evidence clearly.
• Discussion: How do we reach people who don’t want to believe the facts? Discuss confirmation bias and how to write for a skeptical audience.

16:15–17:00 – Session 6: Ethics and the fact-checker’s mindset

• Aims: To pull together the day’s learning into a personal professional code of conduct.
• Presentation: Review the ethical considerations from both articles. Emphasise that fact-checking is a mindset, not just a set of tools. It requires humility – being prepared to be wrong and being transparent when you make a mistake.
• Activity: In groups, participants create a 10-point checklist that they will promise to use before filing any future story.
• Discussion: Final Q&A. Review the day’s key takeaways and address any remaining challenges.

Assignment

Identify a current, local news story that is gaining traction on social media. Perform a comprehensive fact-check on the primary claim. You must produce a 500-word report that includes:

1. The original claim and its source.
2. A verification of the five pillars – provenance, source, date, location, motivation.
3. At least two pieces of essential context that were missing from the original social media post.
4. A final verdict – true, misleading, false, or unverifiable – with links to all your evidence.

Materials needed:

• Handouts of the two MHM articles.
• Laptops or tablets with internet access.
• Projector for demonstrating reverse image searches.
• Mobile journalism kits or recording devices for Session 5.
• A selection of local newspapers or print-outs of trending social media threads.

Assessment:

• Participation: Active engagement in group discussions and the exercises.
• Technical proficiency: Ability to successfully use digital verification tools during Session 3.
• Quality of context: Depth of research shown in the contextualisation activity.
• Final Assignment: Accuracy, clarity of writing, and the robustness of the evidence provided in the 500-word report.

Summary:

This lesson plan provides a comprehensive roadmap for media trainers to instil a culture of verification in their trainees. By moving from basic fact-checking to advanced digital investigation and contextual analysis, participants will learn how to produce journalism that is not only accurate but also meaningful. The core materials for this lesson can be found at Fact-checking and adding context and Beyond basic fact-checking.