NSW Department of Education
Learning resources

Interactive Source Checker

For teachers
For parents
For students

Key message

Do you know what news sources are? Can you spot a reliable one in a news story? Test your re-source-fulness in the ABC education source checker quiz.

The Sources activity invites students to apply the skills and knowledge that they have acquired from the resources. They can test their ability to discern between reliable and unreliable sources of information and come to conclusions about the currency and accuracy of information presented and the purpose of the written piece.

The Source Checker interactive introduces students to:

  • The range of sources that journalists use in a news report.
  • The strengths and weaknesses of these resources in relation to the context of the story and their value in helping the audience understand and issue.

Follow up offline activities

Evaluating online ‘news’ / information

This activity introduces students to a simple three-step checklist to evaluate an online source.

Teachers collect a range of online articles from reputable and disreputable sites with a combination of sources that are real, fake, satirical and historical.

Working in small groups and using the checklist, assess each item and award it an overall reliability score. Groups can reconvene to discuss each article and come to a class consensus.

Download the teacher activity guide PDF

Curriculum and syllabus links

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