Journalist Anna Lelik took on her first investigative report when she was just 17. She was looking into online censorship in Central Asian countries — including in her home country of Kyrgyzstan — and was worried she wouldn’t be taken seriously as a journalist. Luckily, her first big interview was over the phone, she says at TEDxYouth@Tallinn, so her interviewee couldn’t see that she had just graduated from high school.

Lelik was writing for Kloop, a youth-powered news outlet in Bishkek. “Most people at Kloop [are] young people,” she says. “Most of the stories for the website are done by young people aged 15-25.”

When Kloop first started, it was hard to get “grownup journalists” and the public to take them seriously, Lelik says, but everything changed once the site started covering the Kyrgyz Revolution of 2010. “The other media — with the grownup journalists — only covered the official side of the story [with] the comments of the state — or [they] kept silent, while protestors stormed local administration in the provinces,” Lelik says. Kloop journalists were on the scene during these clashes, Lelik says, and the internet turned to these young reporters for coverage of the events.

“Hundreds of thousands of users visited our website [during the April revolution],” Lelik says, “and step by step we started gaining more trust.” Soon, Kloop was being quoted in outlets like the New York Times, the Guardian, and the Associated Press. It became the fifth most popular news website in Kyrgyzstan.

As Kloop grew, it began to take on more in-depth investigative reports, live broadcasting, and news video. One of their reporters discovered the illegal construction of mansions in a green park, Lelik says, by flying a drone camera over Bishkek. Another story focused on the unfinished construction of a hydroelectric plant and the bids for construction that went into its planning.

In 2016, the president of Kyrgyzstan mentioned Kloop for the first time in a public speech. It was a critique, but Lelik says she thinks that’s the best compliment they could get — and a sign that the country takes Kloop seriously.

To learn more about Kloop, watch Lelik’s TEDx talk. To learn more about journalism, watch this TED-Ed Lesson. 

Photo credit: Bektour Iskender. Author bio: Hailey Reissman writes for TEDx Innovations Blog.

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What are facts? Facts are the truthful answers to a reporter’s 5 key questions: who, what, when, where, and how. Facts may include names, numbers, dates, definitions, quotes, locations, research findings, historical events, statistics, survey and poll data, titles and authors, pronouns, financial data, institution names and spellings, and historical or biographical details attributed to anyone or anything. Facts are checkable.

What is fact-checking? Fact-checking is the process of confirming the factual accuracy of certain statements or claims, in order to create and share accurate, evidence-based media that relies on high-quality, reliable primary and secondary sources.

What kinds of facts do people often get wrong? The most frequent mistakes occur in the spellings of names and institutions, and the attribution or wording of quotes. These errors can be relatively harmless — for example, a throwaway remark about Ben Franklin. Or, they can be devastating — for example, listing the wrong person in a breaking news article about a bombing. If you’re a student, get in the habit of getting it right.

While the majority of factual errors are probably not nefarious, there are instances in which people may deliberately hide important facts or introduce inaccuracy. For journalists in these situations, three maxims are useful in finding the facts: ‘follow the money’, ‘consider the source’, and ‘who benefits?’ Remember, a reporter’s job is to find and share the facts that matter, even if people don’t like it.

Facts are only as good as their sources. There are two main types of sources: primary sources and secondary sources. Primary sources may include people, transcripts, videos, visitor logs, raw data, peer-reviewed scientific studies, recorded interviews, your own original research, and in-person observation. Secondary sources may include newspaper articles, magazine articles, and books. (Important note: unlike magazines, many books are not factchecked! If you’re using a book as a source, look for a bibliography or notes to track down an author’s sources, and then re-report if needed.)

As with all sources, watch out for inaccuracy, outdated information, and unconscious bias (for example, avoid disproven studies, or articles that talk about people ‘looting’ vs ‘finding’ and ‘rioting’ vs ‘protesting’).  Avoid spreading inaccuracy, outdated information, or unconscious bias. Instead, try to increase the world’s supply of truth by shining a light on facts that matter.

To learn more about the media, read “How to tell fake news from real news.”

Art credit: iStock

Laura McClure is an award-winning journalist and the TED-Ed Editor. To learn something new every week, sign up here for the TED-Ed Newsletter.

In November 2016, Stanford University researchers made an alarming discovery: across the US, many students can’t tell the difference between a reported news article, a persuasive opinion piece, and a corporate ad. This lack of media literacy makes young people vulnerable to getting duped by “fake news” — which can have real consequences.

Want to strengthen your own ability to tell real news from fake news? Start by asking these five questions of any news item:

Who wrote it? Real news contains the real byline of a real journalist dedicated to the truth. Fake news (including “sponsored content” and traditional corporate ads) does not. Once you find the byline, look at the writer’s bio. This can help you identify whether the item you’re reading is a reported news article (written by a journalist with the intent to inform), a persuasive opinion piece (written by an industry expert with a point of view), or something else entirely.

What claims does it make? Real news — like these Pulitzer Prize winning articles — will include multiple primary sources when discussing a controversial claim. Fake news may include fake sources, false urls, and/or “alternative facts” that can be disproven through further research. When in doubt, dig deeper. Facts can be verified.

When was it published? Look at the publication date. If it’s breaking news, be extra careful. Use this tipsheet to decode breaking news.

Where was it published? Real news is published by trustworthy media outlets with a strong factchecking record, such as the BBC, NPR, ProPublica, Mother Jones, and Wired. (To learn more about any media outlet, look at their About page and examine their published body of work.) If you get your news primarily via social media, try to verify that the information is accurate before you share it. (On Twitter, for example, you might look for the blue “verified” checkmark next to a media outlet name to doublecheck a publication source before sharing a link.)

How does it make you feel? Fake news, like all propaganda, is designed to make you feel strong emotions. So if you read a news item that makes you feel super angry, pause and take a deep breath. Then, doublecheck the item’s claims by comparing it to the news on any three of the media outlets listed above — and decide for yourself if the item is real news or fake news. Bottom line: Don’t believe everything you read. There is no substitute for critical thinking.

If you get in the habit of asking all 5 of these questions whenever you read a news article, then your basic news literacy skills will start to grow stronger. However, these are just the basics! To dive deeper into news and media literacy, watch the TED-Ed Lesson: How to choose your news. To find out more about what students need, read the Stanford University report, published here.

Laura McClure is an award-winning journalist and the TED-Ed Editor. To learn something new every week, sign up here for the TED-Ed Newsletter.