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Journalism & Media vocabulary · Fact-Checking and Verification

Source laundering

Meaning in journalism & media, with examples

nounAdvanced term

In journalism & media, source laundering means: Obscuring the original source of information by passing it through apparently credible intermediaries.

In Turkish: bilginin kaynağını aklama

How it is used

Use when intermediary publication disguises provenance; distinguish it from openly credited republication.

Example sentences

  1. The investigation traced source laundering from an anonymous message to a supposed expert report.

    An intermediary can make weakly sourced information appear authoritative.

  2. Identifying the original document helped the team uncover source laundering.

    Tracing provenance tests credibility that may have been borrowed from later publishers.

Common collocations

  • expose source laundering
  • source laundering network
  • trace source laundering
  • sourceA person, document or organisation that gives a journalist information for a story; also the place where a piece of information comes from.
  • disinformationFalse information that is created or spread deliberately to mislead people, damage someone or influence public opinion.

More terms: Fact-Checking and Verification

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