Glossary: Source Triangulation
Launch library · evergreen read
Source triangulation means carefully checking a claim against several genuinely different, entirely independent types of source at once, official records, independent reporting, primary documents themselves, rather than relying entirely on any single source alone, however confident or outwardly authoritative that one single source might happen to seem entirely on its own.
The term itself actually borrows directly from navigation, where triangulating a position using multiple separate reference points produces a considerably far more reliable and accurate result than relying on just one single reference point alone ever could. Much the same underlying logic applies well when verifying an uncertain claim.
Practising triangulation quite deliberately, rather than simply stopping at the very first source encountered along the way, is one of the most consistently effective habits available across nearly every single category of verification covered throughout this entire library of material, from images all the way through to accounts and sources.