Blog Assignment 7: To Snopes or Not to Snopes?

After navigating through Snopes.com I noticed that the majority of the articles that are featured are on topics that I've seen floating around on my Facebook feed or possibly emailed to me at some point. The purpose of the site is mainly to "Fact Check" the validity of these topics and headlines. Even though in the About Us section the authors are reported to show their work and how they came to the findings, I would not consider using this site as my sole source since the site was funded "as an expression of his interest in researching urban legends". The site claims to run on its own and have no "business or editorial relationship with any sponsor, political party, religious group, outside business organization, or government agency" and has displays a badge that deems the organization as compliant with IFCN  (International Fact Checking Network) however, if the sources that they use are biased, so can be the findings, therefore I would do further research on the sources used. Snopes.com has a section subheading the About Us section about Topic Selection, where they claim Transparency and claim not impose judgement. According to Snopes.com, the way they chose the topics they will cover depend on the availability of sources they have, how much they can cover and the available staff. I'd never heard of Snopes.com prior to doing this assignment but I found it to be rather useful to get started on brainstorming topics for future assignments or just for fun! It certainly helps that the site has the Transparency policy and they are compliant with IFCN.