Exploration Station: Snopes

Snopes' take on our example fake news is here.

About www.Snopes.com:

Emphasis:

• Began in 1995
• Originally researched urban legends
• Purpose  - Fact checking, debunking myths that circulate in the popular sphere

Coverage:

• Choose topics based on readership interest (requests, search term frequency)
• Covers text from articles, publications, emails, social media posts, videos, images, meme
• urban legends, but other some fact checking
• Political claims, health, science, gossip, any weird thing you might have hear

Methodology:

• Includes review by several editors
• Try to contact creators
• Attempts to use non-partisan information (government statistics, peer-reviewed journals)
• Every article signed, gives evidence

Personnel:

• Small research staff
• Most are writers, journalists, but not all

Independent (Funding, bias?):

• Very transparent
• All company shares owned by editorial and development staff
• Funded by advertising revenue (claims that advertisers have no contact with editorial staff and have no influence), and one lone grant
• Snopes.com editorial staff are prohibited from donating to, or participating in, political campaigns, political parties, or political advocacy organizations.
• “Neither the site nor its operators has ever received monies from (or been engaged in any business or editorial relationship with), any sponsor, political party, religious group, outside business organization, or government agency that is not disclosed here.”  (it lists one educational grant)
• Not related to traditional media

PROS:

• Perfect for any random factoid you hear in the ether
• Covers most topics
• Easy to use, rating system
• Independent of other media and partisan affiliation
• Rating system
• Has archive of stories
• Well established - founded in 1995

CONS:                                                                 

• Not extensive coverage on political issues
• Authors not experts in any given topic
• Claim takes time to verify