As journalists — even ones just starting out — we face a lot of pressure to publish quickly, meeting our own deadlines and beating other outlets to the story. But the glory of getting the scoop doesn’t mean anything if the information you publish isn’t accurate. Corrections (or heaven forbid, retractions) do happen, sometimes to veteran journalists and well-known media outlets. But as someone just starting out, you can’t afford for your editors or readers to label you as a reporting noob who can’t be trusted with a big story.

So how do journalists keep themselves and their work honest? Enter fact-checking!

OK, so calling people and annotating how you know everything in your story may not be the sexiest part of the job, but it is absolutely necessary. And for new reporters, the time to build your fact-checking spidey sense is NOW.

In this Youth Radio toolkit, we’ll give you a basic rundown of how to fact-check your work, including a few case studies from our reporting files. We also have a fun activity for you to challenge your budding reporters to find the facts!