Enrichment · Passion Projects

Before you share it,
check where it came from.

A flood that is really from another country three years ago. A speech clipped to say the opposite. An animal rescue that never happened. Record the claim and the account, run nine verification steps the way fact-checkers do, log each piece of evidence for or against, and choose a verdict. The organizer catches recycled footage and verdicts the evidence does not support.

Check a videoWhat you get
$5one-time · every device you sign in on
Buy · $5

Included with the Caveat Academy pass and Whole-school licenses. Or get it in the Passion projects kit, $39 for 43 items.

Videos checked

The worked example is made up, including the accounts: a flood clip, a political clip and an animal rescue. Saved on this device only.

Loading the video form. If nothing appears, turn on JavaScript.

What you get

Enrichment · Passion Projects$5

What you finish with
A record per video: where and when you saw it, the claim, the posting account, the date claimed and the earliest copy found, whether you shared it, nine verification steps, each piece of evidence marked as supporting, contradicting or unclear, and a verdict. Counts evidence for and against and verdicts; flags recycled footage, an authentic verdict with thin or contradicting evidence, too many skipped steps, a shared video that needs a correction and an AI verdict without the frames named.
Who it is for
Middle school, high school and college students, journalism and media literacy classes, librarians and anyone checking a video before sharing it.
Format
Browser organizer with a saved record per video. Prints one verification report, all of them in a table or a blank checklist; downloads a spreadsheet (.csv); exports and imports a file.
Access
$5 one-time, yours on every device you sign in on; the tool opens once you are signed in with it. Included with the Caveat Academy pass and Whole-school licenses. Also in the Passion projects kit ($39) and the Enrichment Suite pass ($119), and 1 more bundle. Everything you type stays in this browser; nothing is sent to Caveat.
Where it lives
The Passion Projects space in Caveat Enrichment.
Support
Questions about access, an order or a correction: team@caveatacademic.com.

How to use it

  1. Write the claim exactly as posted, and the account.
  2. Take three or four screenshots at different moments and reverse-search them.
  3. Work through the steps; mark the ones that do not apply.
  4. Log each finding as for, against or unclear.
  5. Pick the verdict the evidence supports, including Cannot tell yet.

Check a video

How verification works

How fact-checkers verify a video1ProvenanceWho filmed it, and is this theoriginal upload?2SourceWho posted it, and what istheir history?3DateWhen was it filmed? Earliestcopies, weather, shadows.4LocationWhere was it filmed? Signs,landmarks, maps.5MotivationWhy was it posted, and whogains if it spreads?How fact-checkers verify a video1ProvenanceWho filmed it, and is this the originalupload?2SourceWho posted it, and what is theirhistory?3DateWhen was it filmed? Earliest copies,weather, shadows.4LocationWhere was it filmed? Signs, landmarks,maps.5MotivationWhy was it posted, and who gains if itspreads?
These five come from First Draft’s verification training. Most viral fakes fail on the first or third: real footage, wrong time, new claim.

Lateral reading

Stanford researchers found that professional fact-checkers judged sources better than students and historians by leaving the page quickly and reading what others say about the source. The same move works for videos: search about the clip, not just inside it.

AI-made video

Generated video keeps improving, so single giveaways fade. Look for physics that breaks (water, hair, shadows), text that warps, hands and teeth, and voices that do not match mouths, and then rely on provenance, which AI cannot fake as easily.

Cannot tell yet is a verdict

Many videos cannot be confirmed in an afternoon. Saying so, and not sharing until you know, is what careful journalists do.

Sources

  1. Wardle, C. (2017). First Draft’s Essential Guide to Verifying Online Information; Urbani, S. (2019). Verifying online information. First Draft.
  2. Wineburg, S., and McGrew, S. (2019). Lateral reading and the nature of expertise: reading less and learning more when evaluating digital information. Teachers College Record, 121(11).
  3. Silverman, C. (Ed.) (2014). Verification Handbook. European Journalism Centre (datajournalism.com).
  4. News Literacy Project, Checkology: video verification lessons (newslit.org).

The worked example is made up; the accounts and claims are invented. This organizer helps you record a check; it does not detect fakes by itself. Nothing you type is sent to Caveat. Support: team@caveatacademic.com.