B-Empire Academy

Courses · Beginner to intermediate · 3 h 30 min

Fact-Checking Fundamentals

Professional training to verify like a newsroom: the typology of disinformation, the psychology of how it spreads, assessing sources and experts, statistics, advanced search, web archives, account analysis and writing a fact-check, through to a complete investigation carried out from start to finish.

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What you will learn

  • Classify problematic content using the Wardle and Derakhshan typology and put forward a reasoned hypothesis about its author’s motivation
  • Explain the cognitive and algorithmic mechanisms that speed up falsehood, and apply a personal “pause and verify” routine
  • Assess a website, an author or an expert in under five minutes through lateral reading, and unmask an impostor site (domain, WHOIS, legal notice)
  • Isolate a verifiable claim, trace it back to its primary source and take apart a misleading figure: relative risk, base rate, margin of error, cherry-picked period, truncated axis
  • Build advanced queries (quotation marks, site:, filetype:, before:/after:), consult web archives and search platforms by date
  • Analyse a social media account (age, posting rhythm, name changes, profile picture) and document a network of coordinated accounts without drawing unwarranted conclusions
  • Write and publish a structured, transparent fact-check that complies with the IFCN code, with a justified verdict and a truth sandwich
  • Carry out a full verification, from a rumour received on WhatsApp through to publication and follow-up

Syllabus

  1. 1
    Understanding disinformation: types, actors and motivations 25 min · 5-question quiz
  2. 2
    Why falsehood spreads faster than truth 24 min · 5-question quiz
  3. 3
    Assessing a source: SIFT, impostor sites and experts 26 min · 5-question quiz
  4. 4
    Verifying a claim: figures, statistics and quotes 28 min · 5-question quiz
  5. 5
    Advanced search for fact-checkers 27 min · 5-question quiz
  6. 6
    Verifying an account and documenting a network 26 min · 5-question quiz
  7. 7
    Publishing a fact-check without amplifying the falsehood 24 min · 5-question quiz
  8. 8
    Full case study: investigating a WhatsApp rumour 30 min · 5-question quiz
  9. ★
    Final exam and certificate30 questions · 80% required