Primary source
A primary source produces the information first-hand, with no intermediary. What makes one, and why "primary" does not mean "neutral".
A primary source supplies the information first-hand, with no intermediary: the original document, the direct witness, the person who took the decision, the raw dataset, the video shot on the spot. It sits at the head of the chain — everything else flows from it.
Going back to the primary source is the core act of verification. An official statement is a primary source for what the institution said; a judgment for what the court decided; an annual report for a company's accounts. An article summarising them is not, however good the article is.
The frequent error is conflating "primary" with "reliable". A primary source is close to the fact, not disinterested: a company statement is a first-rate primary source on the company's position, and a poor one on what actually happened.
Related reading
- Secondary sourceGlossary
A secondary source reports, summarises or analyses what another established. Its real use, its limit, and the trap of the citation chain.
- Fact checkingGlossary
Fact checking means testing a public claim against verifiable sources. Its two forms, its method, and the questions it cannot settle.
- Off the recordGlossary
Off the record covers what a source tells a journalist without it being quotable. What the deal actually covers, its degrees, and why it holds.
- How do you verify information?Guides
Get back to the source, date it, cross-check, identify who's speaking: the method newsrooms use, turned into simple steps you can run yourself.
- The difference between a dispatch and an articleGuides
A dispatch is a wholesale product written for newsrooms; an article is written for you. Two objects, two authors, two uses — and how to tell them apart.
- How do you spot fake news?Guides
Effective false information is rarely a big lie: far more often it's a displaced truth. The mechanisms behind it, the markers to look for and the reflexes that defuse them.
- EmbargoGlossary
An embargo is a time before which information handed to journalists may not be published. What it is for, and what it does not guarantee.