News Watch to investigate viral claims
Partnership with Gigafact will produce fact briefs that combat misinformation and corroborate true statements.
Credible information is increasingly difficult to find. It's one of the reasons readers trust South Dakota News Watch and why the organization's donor base includes people from across the political spectrum.
News Watch will now build on that trust by partnering with Gigafact, a nonprofit network of nonpartisan newsrooms that verify influential claims circulating online.
Veteran journalist Megan Luther, who already writes freelance stories for News Watch, will lead the effort, which will start Feb. 5. She'll publish new fact briefs every Wednesday here on the website. A snippet and link will also be emailed to SDNW's reader list.
News Watch is honored to join 10 other newsrooms in offering this content to its readers. Read more about Gigafact's standards and how it's helping newsrooms like News Watch engage readers with facts, at a time when that's needed more than ever.
News Watch verification standards
Fact briefs are different than other similar approaches because they don't just cover false claims or call out people spreading misinformation. They refute or confirm statements with supporting information and additional evidence and context.
The fact briefs, which are a maximum of 150 words, include a definitive yes or no on whether a claim is true and the sources used to verify it, so readers can see the information for themselves.
The quick-read format complements South Dakota News Watch's in-depth stories and will also abide the organization's existing verification policy:
South Dakota News Watch commits to doing its best to publish accurate information across all of its content.
We take many steps to ensure accuracy: We investigate claims with skepticism; question assumptions; challenge conventional wisdom; confirm information with experts; and seek to corroborate what sources tell us by talking with other informed people or consulting documents.
We verify content, such as technical terms and stats, against source documents or make clear who is providing the information. We may share relevant components of a story with a primary source or an outside expert to verify them.
We stand by the information as accurate, and if it's not, we will change it as quickly as possible and be transparent with our readers about the magnitude of the error.
Read it and all of our standards on the best practices policies page.
Questions, comments, concerns
If you're a long-time reader, you know South Dakota News Watch is committed to traditional journalistic standards of accuracy and fairness. It's been the organization's practice since it started publishing in 2017.
If you're a new reader, please sign up for the email that comes with a new story every few days and check it. Then send your feedback to carson.walker@sdnewswatch.org.
If you'd like Megan to check out a claim from social media or elsewhere, just fill out this short online form or email it to factbrief@sdnewswatch.org.
