How to verify a news story in five minutes

Verification sounds like newsroom work with specialist tools. In practice, most falsehoods collapse under checks anyone can do from a phone.

The first thirty seconds

Before anything else, three quick questions. If any fails, you can be sceptical without going further:

1. Who is publishing it? An identifiable outlet with a name and legal notice, or an anonymous account and a forwarded message.
2. When? Find the date. If there is none, bad sign; if it is three years old, it is already resolved.
3. Who does it cite? A specific source — a report, an authority, a named person — or a vague "sources say" that means nothing.

Those three dismantle most of what circulates in groups and feeds.

The five checks

1. Find the original

Almost everything circulating is a copy of a copy. Search a literal phrase in quotation marks and you will see who published it first. Often the original says something considerably more nuanced than the version that reached you.

2. Check the date, always

The best effort-to-result ratio of any check. Much misinformation is not invented content: it is real, old content republished as if it were today's. It happens every summer with the same fires and every winter with the same storms.

3. Go to the cited source

If it says "according to a study", find the study. If it says "the council has approved", check the council website. It is remarkable how often the cited source says something different, or does not exist at all.

4. Cross-check with another outlet

If something significant is true, more than one outlet reports it. One caveat: appearing in twenty places confirms nothing if all twenty copy the same source. Check whether any adds original reporting.

5. Ask who benefits

Not proof, but a useful pointer. If a message fits too neatly with what someone wants you to believe, it deserves another round of checking.

Images and video

This is where most people fail, because an image convinces before you get around to thinking.

• Reverse image search. The equivalent of checking the date, but for photos: it reveals whether the image is from elsewhere or another year.
• Look at surrounding details. Number plates, the language on signs, vegetation, people's clothing. A photo of a fire "in your area" with tropical vegetation collapses on its own.
• Be wary of cropping. A genuine photo can mislead through what it leaves out. Look for the full version.
• With video, look for the original. A clip with no identifiable source and another account's logo on it has passed through many hands.

Common traps

• The headline that does not match the text. It happens even in serious outlets. If something sounds outrageous, read the whole piece before sharing.
• The figure without context. "Up 200 %" means nothing without knowing the starting point.
• The genuine quote out of context. The sentence was said, but in another conversation and with another meaning.
• The site imitating a known outlet. Read the domain carefully: they play with hyphens and similar endings.
• The "everyone is saying it". Repetition does not make something true; sometimes it just means it has been copied a lot.

For local matters there is a shortcut that almost always works: go straight to the official source. If it is a council matter, it must be on the council website; if it concerns a utility, on the company's. Thirty seconds settle what a two-day group argument never clarifies. This guide applies it specifically to neighbourhood claims.