Jim Dan Hill Library: Research Resources: Background & Current Topics: "Hot Topics" or "Key Issues"

Issues, Topics, and Events

Whether you are researching for a debate, a position paper, or just trying to learn more, the resources on this page can help you to gather information (including about points of view) and to conduct some basic fact checking.

Library Database Resources

Issues & Controversies

Issues & Controversies helps researchers understand today’s crucial issues by exploring hundreds of hot topics in politics, government, business, society, education, and popular culture.

Online Resources - Policy, Education, and Trends

Brookings.edu
From the website: "The Brookings Institution is a nonprofit organization based in Washington, D.C. Our mission is to conduct in-depth, nonpartisan research to improve policy and governance at local, national, and global levels."
FactCheck.Org
This Project of the Annenberg Public Policy Center of the University of Pennsylvania describes itself on its website as "a nonpartisan, nonprofit “consumer advocate” for voters that aims to reduce the level of deception and confusion in U.S. politics. We monitor the factual accuracy of what is said by major U.S. political players in the form of TV ads, debates, speeches, interviews and news releases. Our goal is to apply the best practices of both journalism and scholarship, and to increase public knowledge and understanding."
Gallup Trends
From the website: Gallup, Inc. was founded in 1935 and is "a private, employee-owned analytics and advisory company based in Washington, D.C."
ProCon
The mission of ProCon.org, per their website, is: “To promote civility, critical thinking, education, and informed citizenship by presenting the pro and con arguments to debatable issues in a straightforward, nonpartisan, freely accessible way.”
https://www.procon.org/about-us/
Public Agenda
From the website (Priorities/Democracy): "By exploring the values and beliefs of ordinary Americans and investigating reforms that encourage productive public participation, we provide people and organizations with a clearer understanding of both the challenges we face in strengthening democracy and the promising pathways toward a healthier, more sustainable democratic future."
Annenberg Classroom Topics
Though designed and packaged for educators, topic guides include videos, fact sheets, "sources worth knowing," timelines, glossaries, and other helpful materials. .

Learn more... less...

Per the website: "AnnenbergClassroom.org is a project of the Leonore Annenberg Institute for Civics, a nonprofit, nonpartisan program of the Annenberg Public Policy Center of the University of Pennsylvania, in partnership with the Annenberg Foundation Trust at Sunnylands."

Investigative Media and Fact Checking

Fact Checking

For facts, dates, and in relation to current events, fact checking websites can be very helpful.

They may not always include the information you are hoping to check, though.When this happens, you may be able to determine more about accuracy if you conduct a search (in a new tab) for an article title or topic plus the words: "fact check."

For bigger concepts or theories, especially for larger research papers and projects, a good strategy to try is to apply "lateral reading."

The basic steps of lateral reading can also be helpful for a simple and quick fact check, or to learn more about a source. For a brief introduction to lateral reading for fact checking (the video is less than three minutes long!), please review this video.

Want to see some additional suggestions? Check out the "Evaluate Sources with Lateral Reading" and "How to Spot Fake News" Infographics in this guide.

News Media Investigations and Fact Checking

Pro Publica
ProPublica's website states it mission as follows: "To expose abuses of power and betrayals of the public trust by government, business, and other institutions, using the moral force of investigative journalism to spur reform through the sustained spotlighting of wrongdoing."
BBC [British Broadcasting Company] Verify
"BBC Verify is dedicated to examining the facts and claims behind a story to try to determine whether or not it is true." (Website)

Additional Fact Checking Resources

Snopes
"Snopes got its start in 1994, investigating urban legends, hoaxes, and folklore. . ." (website)
Politifact
"PolitiFact is a nonpartisan fact-checking website to sort out the truth in American politics. PolitiFact was created by the Tampa Bay Times, a Florida newspaper, in 2007. In 2018, PolitiFact was acquired by the Poynter Institute, a nonprofit school for journalists." (Website: About Us/Who Pays for Politifact)
SciCheck
An initiative of FactCheck, "SciCheck feature focuses exclusively on false and misleading scientific claims that are made by partisans to influence public policy. It was launched in January 2015 with a grant from the Stanton Foundation" (Website)

Page Credits

icivics. (August 26, 2024). "Intro to Lateral Reading - Teaching Online Fact-Checking." [Video]. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=as1IzVljNAw

UW-Green Bay Library, "How to use a fact checker," Evaluating Sources of Information, https://library.uwgb.edu/evalinfo/factchecker.