Poynter’s foolproof guide to living your best fact-filled life

When the day for pranks and jokes comes to an end, the nonprofit Poynter Institute invites everyone to celebrate the role of facts in everyday life during the sixth International Fact-Checking Day on April 2. 

Launched in 2017 by Poynter’s International Fact-Checking Network, the annual event recognizes the work of fact-checkers worldwide to verify and disprove claims surrounding society’s most pressing issues in the modern age of misinformation. The day also seeks to unleash the collective power of individuals equipped with tools to elevate the truth as their own fact-checkers. 

“Communities built to last are built on truth,” said Baybars Örsek, director of the IFCN and international programming at Poynter. “But the stakes for an informed global society are at an all-time high. It can be difficult to make sense of the vast amount of conflicting information surrounding what matters most in life — like our health, the environment and democracy. This International Fact-Checking Day, people around the world can take small, practical steps to improve the quality of our shared information ecosystem.” 

In honor of International Fact-Checking Day, Poynter compiled a list of resources from its three fact-checking enterprises including the IFCN, the Pulitzer Prize-winning PolitiFact and the digital media literacy initiative MediaWise. 

Here are 25 foolproof ways everyone — journalists, professional fact-checkers, educators and citizens alike — can do their part to help reduce the spread of misinformation and fill their lives with facts: 

1. Connect with fact-checkers, download gamified lesson plans and take quizzes to test your skills on factcheckingday.com, the digital hub for International Fact-Checking Day.
2. Track debunked disinformation surrounding the Russian invasion of Ukraine in real time with more than 100 verified signatories of the IFCN at ukrainefacts.org.
3. Watch a masterclass from MediaWise’s Campus Correspondents and learn simple techniques to identify misinformation, find trusted sources, spot red flags and verify photos and videos. 
4. Subscribe to PolitiFact on YouTube for regular fact-checking videos that rate the accuracy and claims of elected officials and prominent figures in the U.S.
5. Review the IFCN’s Code of Principles to better understand the series of commitments fact-checking organizations abide by to keep their audiences informed.
6. Share why #FactCheckingIsEssential to you on social media.
7. Visit poynter.org April 2-8 to read op-eds from IFCN verified signatories on why #FactCheckingIsEssential in their countries. 
8. Follow MediaWise on Instagram and TikTok to learn how to debunk viral claims and be more critical consumers of online information.
9. Protect yourself from false or misleading information about the pandemic with the #CoronaVirusFacts Alliance.
10. Tune in on April 4 as Alanna Dvorak, IFCN’s international training manager, hosts a panel on the fact-checking community’s collaborative initiative to combat disinformation around the war in Ukraine. 
11. Subscribe to Factually, IFCN’s newsletter that highlights interesting fact checks, dives into global misinformation trends and features fact-checking and media literacy training opportunities.
12. Make a meaningful contribution to Poynter and help advance and preserve journalism’s role in press freedom in democracies worldwide.
13. Get election coverage leading up to the U.S. midterms in PolitiFact’s weekly newsletter by editor-in-chief Angie Drobnic Holan. 
14. Check out videos, WhatsApp courses and activities from MediaWise that will equip you with fact-checking skills to fight misinformation online.
15. On April 5, watch Enock Nyariki, IFCN’s community and impact manager, moderate a discussion about online harassment with fact-checkers from around the world.
16. Stand up for facts and become a member PolitiFact’s Truth Squad.
17. Wise up to online misinformation about climate change and the 2022 midterms elections with MediaWise’s #MissMeWithThatMisinformation campaign. 
18. Subscribe to The Poynter Report with Tom Jones, a must-read daily newsletter for everyone who cares about the media coverage shaping our world.
19. Empower the Spanish speakers in your life to responsibly engage with the content they see and share online with MediaWise en Español.
20. Join Ferdi Özsoy, IFCN’s program manager, on April 6 to congratulate the recipients of the IFCN’s most recent grant programs and learn how their work will impact the global fact-checking community. 
21. Register to attend Global Fact 9 June 22-25, the world’s largest fact-checking summit hosted by the IFCN. 
22. Subscribe to Covering COVID-19 with Al Tompkins to have the latest news about the coronavirus delivered to your inbox every weekday. 
23. Apply to join Poynter’s fact-checking team as a PolitiFact Deputy Editor, PolitiFact Contributing Editor, MediaWise en Español Project Manager, or MediaWise Audience Engagement Intern.
24. Tell your friends in Brazil, France, Spain and Turkey to sign up for a free, 10-day WhatsApp course to have the best digital media literacy tips from MediaWise delivered straight to their mobile devices.
25. Connect with Poynter if you’re interested in funding fact-checking programs around the world.

On April 2, engage, participate and help Poynter, the International Fact-Checking Network, PolitiFact and MediaWise raise awareness and educate people around the world about the importance of finding facts.

Together, we can make a difference in the fight against misinformation.