Five questions to ask before you trust a headline

Media literacy is a muscle, and like any muscle it works best as a routine. Here is the checklist our editors apply to every story that crosses the wire — it takes about twenty seconds, and it catches most of what deserves to be caught.

1. Who is reporting this — and who first?

A claim that exists in one outlet is a lead; a claim confirmed independently by two newsrooms is a story.

2. What is the headline *not* saying?

Headlines compress, and compression is editorial. "Minister refuses to rule out X" usually means nothing has happened yet.

3. Are the numbers doing what the words claim?

"Doubled" can mean from one to two. Find the base figure before you accept the trend.

4. Is the quote load-bearing?

If the most dramatic sentence is inside quotation marks, check who said it and in what context. Reported speech is the easiest place for spin to hide.

5. What would change your mind?

If no conceivable update would alter the story''s framing, you are reading an opinion piece — which is fine, as long as you know it.

None of this requires special tools. It requires the habit of pausing — which is, not coincidentally, what a twice-hourly digest is designed to give you back.