Fact check is the process of verifying the accuracy of a statement. This practice is a long-standing tradition in journalism, and social media sites routinely employ fact checking as part of their vetting of information posted to their platforms.

To begin the fact-checking process, the writer will provide the fact-checker with a copy of the near-final story and annotate it in ways that make it easy to identify each claim that needs checking: circle or highlight the text, write a note to yourself or use the annotation tools in word processing software; include contact information for experts and eyewitnesses; mark up any transcripts, audio recordings or video clips you have access to (and be sure to keep a backup) with the name and description of the source; and categorize each fact.

The fact-checker will go through the story line-by-line, checking each claim against its source. This can be a time-consuming and labor-intensive process, but it is crucial to the integrity of the article. The fact-checker will also likely engage in a back-and-forth with the writer to negotiate precise wording and collectively evaluate different sources.

Previous research on the effectiveness of traditional and social media fact-checking has produced mixed results. It is possible that the results are confounded by methodological differences among studies, which may have used a small sample of claims, employed manual methods to collect data and code facts, or focused on a single issue area. Future research should attempt to account for these methodological variations.