Behind the Scenes: Facts
This lesson takes students inside Verity’s fact-checking engine to explore how information becomes “verified.” Students will learn how Verity’s model gathers and cross-checks factual claims from hundreds of outlets, showing where journalists agree, where they diverge, and how editors decide what to include.
Through two guided activities, students trace the journey of a single fact across multiple outlets, then practice distinguishing between factual evidence and interpretive framing. The goal is to help students see that truth in journalism is built collaboratively — through patterns of confirmation, correction, and transparency.
By the end of this lesson, students will:
Understand how Verity aggregates and verifies facts.
Practice tracing, comparing, and evaluating the reliability of information.
Skills: Media literacy · Source Evaluation · Critical reading · Bias awareness · Critical Reading · Evidence-Based Reasoning
How Does Verity Build Truth?
How Verity Works
Determining what is true is difficult, even without political or ideological interests being involved. This is why Verity’s approach to truth focuses on evidence patterns, not assumptions.
Every day, we employ cutting-edge machine learning (ML) systems to aggregate and organize news data from over 5,000 traditional and alternative sources, which we then use to draft our News Stories, Context Stories, Deep Dives and Controversies.
AI-generated first drafts are meticulously reviewed, edited, and refined by our team, who ensure that every fact is neutrally presented and agreed upon by opposing sides or grounded in primary sources. We also ensure that our narratives capture the strongest and most prevailing arguments on each side, and our controversies reflect a wide range of perspectives.
Classroom Activities
Warm Up: What Makes a Fact?
❓ Begin by asking your students:
When you read or hear a “fact” in the news, what makes you believe it?
Who decides what is factual?
After a brief discussion, share Verity’s approach.
🔧 Classroom Tool: Verity’s Fact Checking Guidelines
Core principles:
Verify every factual claim, number, and quote.
Avoid “he said/she said” ambiguity — attribute clearly.
Use primary sources whenever possible (official reports, direct statements).
At Verity, primary sources verify that the person or organization made the claim, not that the claim itself is true.
Use secondary sources for context.
For factual controversies, use cross-side agreement.
When the controversy centers on what happened, Verity defines facts as something that outlets on opposite sides of the issue agree on.
Example: In the article regarding protests in Cameroon, both Al Jazeera (leaning establishment-critical) and Reuters (pro-establishment) agree on the same fact.
Common checks:
Dates, names, titles, and figures.
Hyperlink credibility: ensure links are reliable and up-to-date.
Fact-checker’s mindset: “Assume nothing. Confirm everything.”
Activity 1: Follow the Fact
Objective: Trace how one fact appears differently across sources.
On the Verity News website, all of our stories are accompanied by facts. For this activity, you can utilize any story from Verity. For this example, we will be using this article on protests in Cameroon.
Above: Protesters run away after Cameroonian police officers dispersed them in Garoua on October 26, 2025. Image credit: AFP/Getty
This activity mirrors how Verity’s fact-checking editorial team and volunteers review and verify information. Students will act as fact-checkers, comparing how one Verity fact appears across other news outlets.
Instructions:
Choose one factual statement from the article. For Example:
“President Paul Biya, who is 92 years old and has ruled Cameroon since 1982, faces accusations from protesters of electoral fraud as the country’s constitutional council rejected opposition claims of irregularities, citing insufficient evidence or lack of jurisdiction to annul the election.”
As individuals, or in pairs and groups, have students open the Verity story and click on the “Sources” section below the Fact.
Students must then locate how each outlet reported the same fact and record observations.
🔧 Teacher Tool: Use the chart below to help your students record their observations
Teacher Tool Facts & Sources: Download
Source: The outlet being reviewed (e.g., Reuters, Al Jazeera).
Fact: Students locate the Verity fact in the source article and quote or paraphrase it precisely.
Context: Any background, explanation, or tone the outlet adds - for instance, linking the fact to causes, assigning blame, or emphasizing emotion.
Factual Agreement: Whether the outlet supports, partially supports, or contradicts Verity’s fact. Students can mark this as “agreed,” “partially agreed,” or “disputed.”
💭 Discussion:
Findings:
Which facts appear in every source?
Which appear in some?
Which conflict or are missing?
Further Thinking:
What stayed consistent across all reports?
Where did disagreement arise?
If outlets reported the same fact, why do their stories feel different?
If every news outlet made factual agreement and disagreement visible, how might that change the way people argue about truth?
Activity 2: Fact Builder
Objective: Reconstruct a neutral, verifiable fact from multiple sources.
This activity lets students experience how facts are built. Using the same sources Verity aggregates, they’ll determine what can be legitimately stated as a fact, how much context is required, and how to phrase information without bias.
Instructions:
Gather Sources: Using any Verity article, have students open 3-4 linked sources covering the same event or statement.
Compare Evidence: Students must then identify statements across outlets that describe the same event (for example: the death count reported, the date of a protest, the official action taken). Students must highlight what details are confirmed by multiple outlets and what remains uncertain or undisputed.
Build the Fact: Using only confirmed details, students must write a single, neutral sentence that accurately represents what can be verified. Encourage students to check their phrasing for neutrality and clarity.
✨ Bonus: Students can use AI Models to “scrape” articles for confirmed details and create their fact. This simulates Verity’s aggregation process.
💭 Discussion:
To wrap up, have your students discuss in groups or with the class.
Findings:
How similar were your group’s “facts” to one another?
Did all groups agree on what was verifiable, or did interpretations differ?
What details were easiest to confirm? Which remained uncertain?
How did phrasing or word choice affect neutrality?
Go Deeper:
What does it mean that two opposing narratives can come from one fact?
How might your worldview change if you only read one type of source?
How can acknowledging disagreement actually strengthen truth rather than weaken it?
Class Dismissed!
By the end of this lesson, students should understand how Verity verifies facts, and have practice real fact-checking techniques.
