Developed by librarians at California State University-Chico, the CRAAP Test (Currency, Relevance, Authority, Accuracy, and Purpose) is a handy checklist to use when evaluating online resources. The test provides a list of questions to ask yourself when deciding whether or not a source is reliable and credible enough to believe or share.
Note: The CRAAP test was designed to help students evaluate any website for academic use. The test is still a powerful tool for evaluating news sites, but you might need to alter some of the steps to better suit your needs.
The timeliness of the information
The importance of the information for your needs.
The source of the information.
The reliability, truthfulness and correctness of the content.
The reason the information exists.
Something to keep in mind: the CRAAP test is only one method for evaluating content. There are other methods out there that may be more appropriate such as RADAR (Relevance, Authority, Date, Appearance, Reason for writing) and SIFT (Stop, Investigate, Find, Trace). However, since it was one of the first evaluations for online content, CRAAP is the focus of this page.