My 5 Top Sources of News and Information

Personally, It depends at what stage in research I'm in

For casual use, not looking for news, those days where you're relaxing yet the qualms of the world seem to leak in no matter what... Social Media is usually the source

Instagram, Twitter, Facebook, Tiktok, YouTube, etc. 

I'm not looking for drama and I'm certainly not verifying the given information on these platforms but people tend to learn something and then post it to the world to validate their use of such a platform and it spreads like wildfire as others do the same. 

If it's not social media, it's probably my overly political friend and I mean OVERLY political. He'll debate people online about race, abortion, trump, with people who disagree for FUN

Anyway, after hearing about whatever subject information that's been flung into my face by an algorithm or my friend and I myself am interested enough to verify the information myself. There are a couple things I do. All starting with Google.  

I simply add some key terms into what I've heard about the subject into Google and depending on my search results I'll believe the information. 

1. If multiple reputable news sites have reported the same issue and all have the same information then
    it's most likely true

But what are reputable sites

Forbes.com, known for its listings of certain topics, made a list of

Top 10 Journalism Brands Where You Find Real Facts Rather Than Alternative Facts

Which Included: New York Times
                            The Washington Post
                            BBC
                            The Economist   
                            The New Yorker
                            Wire Services like The Associates Press, Reuters, and Bloomberg News                              Foreign Affairs                   
                            The Atlantic

In that order with some honorable mentions being

National Public Radio, TIME Magazine, The Christian Science Monitor, The Los Angeles Times, USA Today, CNN, NBC News, CBS News, ABC News, etc. 

They have reasonings under each source to explain why they got their ranking or why they're good/bad

So look out for those names when trying to verify a story, BUT if you don't trust that method, another way you could go about it is to Wikipedia search the news source itself
Yes, there's a big stigmatism, "Don't use Wikipedia," and while I'm not saying use Wikipedia for your next big research paper, I am saying Wikipedia can give you a quick and simple answer to the validity of a news source. 
If Wiki says, "This is a notorious satire site" DON'T trust it
If Wiki says, "This is a beloved new source founded in 1940" It's pretty trust worthy

2. If I'm super super invested and my search results didn't satisfy me, I tend to go to fact checking
    websites like

Snopes.com, Polifact.com, Factcheck.org, The Washington Post's own fact checker, etc.

Their sole purpose is the look around for stories on the internet, fact check them, and then present to you whether the stories are true or false

I'm partial to Snopes.com myself, they indicate the validity of a story with a big green check or a big red X and explain why the story's true or explain why the news got it wrong

The last thing I verified on there was a picture of a polar bear boarding a train or bus in Russia. Snopes immediately hit be with that big red X explaining that the bear wasn't actually a bear but a puppet for a cause to "save the polar bears"

Pretty cool, Very Easy to navigate. 

There's my two cents:
    Don't blindly trust social media
    Don't trust the first results Google gives you
    See if other trustworthy sources have covered the topic
    Fact check the story