ABSTRACT
In the world of social journalism, verification and fact-checking are everyone’s responsibility. This chapter introduces the practicalities of research and verification, or “fact-checking,” as a necessary element of social journalism practice. Triangulation is a methodology used in social science research and it is highly applicable to journalism too. Verification is important for conventional reporting, for the simple act of social media sharing, and for independent social journalists who are reliant on their reputation. Verification is an ongoing and proactive process that can go through many stages and it should be part of every step in the process of finding, reporting, writing and editing of news and current affairs reports, whether in print, in a broadcast medium or online. For non-journalists, the best method for source verification using social media is triangulation—information from more than one place that tends to confirm the identity of the person.
