You're facing a tight news deadline. How do you ensure accurate fact-checking in your reporting?

Some ways to get started: Go to fake news or fact checking websites and comb through the updates. 2. Request a call from a government source to confirm the news. 3. Reach out to a known expert in the field who keeps tabs and is active on social media. 4. Call not just one, but multiple experts. Report only the facts and any 'maybe true' should be written as 'the story is under development. More details awaited.'

When covering a breaking news under tight deadlines, here is my advice, don't try to be the news breaker and also don't panic. Take your time to verify information from at least three reliable sources. Rushing to be the first to report can lead to errors that damage your credibility. It's better to be right than to be first. In print journalism, accuracy is even more crucial because corrections can only be made in the next edition. In digital journalism, while mistakes can be corrected quickly, they can still harm your credibility. Always strive for accuracy first. Again please remember this, maintaining the trust of your audience is more important than being the first to break a story.

A story with one source is press release. Always find multiple sources for every article. In addition, find multiple quality sources. I've become frustrated with some of the local TV news who spends far too much time giving local witnesses camera time when they add little to the piece. Feel free to get some color, but don't forget to lean on officials, experts and formal records. The proper game plan is to do thorough reporting initially, so when the deadline rush hits, you're confident there's no holes in your work.

I developed some habits from my tenure as a journalist that I hold to this day as an IT specialist and human being. When documenting communications, try recording the content via digital text in some capacity. I prefer draft emails or text editors that I can save. With the new file open, make note of every source and leave associated notes under it. Also, document the source's full name, title and contacts before digging into their information. Another trick is to name the files so the date is included. I tend to use an underscore and the six-digit full date after a file name (e.g. Story_071624.docx). Combining this with a strong set of notes can make future research easier. This also makes defending your stories much easier.

Having a second pair of eyes look over your work is a good piece of advice regardless of the industry. On deadline, you absolutely want someone to examine what your wrote. I've been a senior journalist with a newspaper who was trusted to write clean copy; it was still more comfortable to have an editor look it over. At best, maybe you misspelled something or skipped over a piece of punctuation. At worse, the article has a gaping wide logic hole and you need to augment with additional reporting while on deadline.