A team of students from the Jandoli School of Communication at St. Bonaventure University are taking part in a fact-checking workshop with PolitiFact senior correspondent Louis Jacobson.

The students, who began working with Jacobson on Thursday, April 9, will produce fact-checking articles that will appear in PolitiFact and PolitiFact New York, the organization’s New York edition, which is a partnership with the Buffalo News.

“Fact-checking is an essential part of journalism’s vital role in our democracy,” Aaron Chimbel, dean of the Jandoli School, said. “As the public navigates the flood of information in our digital and splintered media worlds, thoroughly vetted information is crucial for them to be informed. This collaboration with PolitiFact will do just that and provide a great learning opportunity for our students.”

Nine journalism students were selected for the workshop based on the strength of their writing, editing and analytical skills.

The workshop will operate on a similar model to PolitiFact West Virginia, which Jacobson has edited since August 2018 as an innovator in residence at West Virginia University's Reed College of Media. Another PolitiFact project, PolitiFact Missouri, uses a similar model with students from the University of Missouri.

Jacobson’s collaboration with St. Bonaventure was arranged by Dr. Richard Lee, an associate professor in the Jandoli School and executive director of the Jandoli Institute, which is coordinating the workshop with Jacobson. Jacobson has spoken by video to several of the courses Lee teaches on media, democracy and elections.

St. Bonaventure’s Visiting Scholar Committee selected Jacobson as the university’s spring semester visiting scholar, and he had planned to come to campus in April to conduct the workshop. Because of the COVIFD-19 pandemic, he will work with the students remotely.

Jacobson has been with PolitiFact since 2009, currently as senior correspondent. Previously, he served as deputy editor of Roll Call, the newspaper that covers Congress, and as founding editor of its legislative wire service, CongressNow. Earlier, Jacobson spent more than a decade covering politics, policy, Congress and lobbying for National Journal magazine.

He was senior author of the 2016, 2018 and 2020 editions of The Almanac of American Politics and also contributed to the 2000 and 2004 editions. Since 2004, Jacobson has been writing a column on politics in the states, which he now divides among the Cook Political Report, Sabato's Crystal Ball, and U.S. News & World Report. 

PolitiFact, founded in 2007, is owned by the nonprofit Poynter Institute for Media Studies and employs reporters and editors in St. Petersburg, Florida, Washington, D.C., and half a dozen other cities. It uses traditional journalism techniques to investigate the accuracy of claims in politics, then provides an overall "Truth-O-Meter" rating ranging from True to Pants on Fire. These articles appear on its PolitiFact.com website and are reprinted by its media partners across the country.

The Jandoli Institute serves as a forum for academic research, creative ideas and discussion on the intersection between media and democracy. The institute, accessible at Jandoli.net, is part of the Jandoli School of Communication at St. Bonaventure University.