Independence and Laundering

Objectives

Count origins instead of outlets
Recognize circular citation

Video

Who Can You Trust?. Crash Course · Navigating Digital Information #4. Watch on YouTube

Lesson

Five outlets repeating one press release are one source with five logos. Independence is about the path to the information, not the name on the page.

Source laundering hides or swaps an origin so a claim looks independently sourced. A memo that cites a newspaper that cites the memo is one origin, twice. Hops on a chain are not corroboration.

Terms

Corroboration, Source independence, Source laundering

Sources

www.govinfo.gov (opens in a new tab)

Check

- Peer review, because the memo was examined before republication
- Source laundering — circular citation that hides the single origin
- Independent corroboration, because two separate outlets carried it
- A primary source, because the newspaper published the original text
- Four
- One per site that has a byline
- None; the chain has no primary
- Two
- Unknown. Cannot be determined from the record.
- Ten independent investigations that converged
- A coincidence of wording among ten writers
- Leaked internal memos
- A shared press release or wire item