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HOW TO FIND ACCURATE INFORMATION |
With so much news information being posted online and on social media platforms, how can you tell what's real, what's fake, and what's satire? Even reliable news sources may have political perspectives that can affect their coverage of the news. It's no wonder that high school students have difficulty distinguishing facts from fiction online, according to recent research from Stanford Graduate School of Education.
How can you become a more savvy news consumer? Like most things in life, there is no black and white method or surefire checklist to point you to the whole truth, and nothing but the truth. But, do not despair! Continue to improve your media literacy skills by starting with the general tips below, then add in some fact-checkers and media bias resources to determine accuracy and political perspectives. Check out the skill building resources to learn about filter bubbles, confirmation bias, lateral reading and reverse image searching to continue adding to your media literacy toolbox. Next, take a quiz to see how you're doing as a budding fact-finder. Last, but not least, get in the habit of seeking out reliable sources found in our subscription databases, as well as trusted online news resources. These habits of inquiry will have you well on your way to becoming an informed citizen, equipped with the skills to critically understand, analyze and evaluate online content.
How can you become a more savvy news consumer? Like most things in life, there is no black and white method or surefire checklist to point you to the whole truth, and nothing but the truth. But, do not despair! Continue to improve your media literacy skills by starting with the general tips below, then add in some fact-checkers and media bias resources to determine accuracy and political perspectives. Check out the skill building resources to learn about filter bubbles, confirmation bias, lateral reading and reverse image searching to continue adding to your media literacy toolbox. Next, take a quiz to see how you're doing as a budding fact-finder. Last, but not least, get in the habit of seeking out reliable sources found in our subscription databases, as well as trusted online news resources. These habits of inquiry will have you well on your way to becoming an informed citizen, equipped with the skills to critically understand, analyze and evaluate online content.
TIPS
- Look for unusual URLs or site names, including those that end with ".co" -- these are often trying to appear like legitimate news sites, but they aren't.
- Look for signs of low quality, such as words in all caps, headlines with glaring grammatical errors, bold claims with no sources, and sensationalist images (women in bikinis are popular clickbait on fake news sites). These are clues that you should be skeptical of the source.
- Check a site's "About Us" section. Find out who supports the site or who is associated with it. If this information doesn't exist -- and if the site requires that you register before you can learn anything about its backers -- you have to wonder why they aren't being transparent.
- Use a fact-checking site such as Snopes, FactCheck.org, or PolitiFact before trusting or sharing news that seems too good (or bad) to be true.
- Consider whether other credible, mainstream news outlets are reporting the same news. If they're not, it doesn't mean it's not true, but it does mean you should dig deeper.
- Check your emotions. Clickbait and fake news strive for extreme reactions. If the news you're reading makes you really angry or super smug, it could be a sign that you're being played. Check multiple sources before trusting.
- Use the media center's subscription databases to access credible sources and peer-reviewed articles written by journalists, researchers and experts in their field.
MEDIA LITERACY RESOURCES
FACT CHECKERS
Use the fact checkers below to determine the factual accuracy of the information in news stories and the political arena.
This independent, nonpartisan website run by professional researcher and writer David Mikkelson researches urban legends and other rumors. It is often the first to set the facts straight on wild fake news claims.
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This nonpartisan, nonprofit project of the Annenberg Public Policy Center of the University of Pennsylvania monitors the factual accuracy of what is said by U.S. political players, including politicians, TV ads, debates, interviews and news releases.
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This Pulitzer Prize winning website rates the accuracy of claims by elected officials. Run by editors and reporters from the independent newspaper Tampa Bay Times, Politicfact features the Truth-O-Meter that rates statements as “True,” “Mostly True,” “Half True,” “False,” and “Pants on Fire.”
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MEDIA BIAS RESOURCES
Use the media bias resources below to identify the political leaning and perspectives of a news source. By understanding where a news source is coming from, you will be better equipped to read across the spectrum to gain a balanced understanding of current events.
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AllSides focuses solely on political bias. It places sources in one of five boxes — “Left,” “Lean Left,” “Center,” “Lean Right” and “Right.”
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Ad Fontes rates both reliability and political bias. It scores news sources using bias and reliability as coordinates on its chart. This link will take you to the static media bias charts.
For the interactive chart, click here. |
While not a media bias chart, this survey illustrates trust levels of news sources by ideological group.
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SKILL BUILDING TOOLS
Check out the resources below to improve your ability to decode information you encounter online, and what you can do to combat fake news. Learn about lateral reading, filter bubbles, confirmation bias, reverse image searches, and more!
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How does fake news become news? What can you do to recognize it and stop it? Watch this video to learn about confirmation bias, signal boosters, and filter bubbles.
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From the News Literacy Project, seven simple steps that help you know what to trust. As these behaviors become ingrained in your information consumption habits, you will deepen your expertise.
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Use these questions to assess the likelihood that a piece of information is fake news.
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In this Crash Course video, John Green teaches you how to read laterally, using multiple tabs in your browser to dig deeper and fact check as you read. Real-time fact-checking can help you figure out what's real and what's not on the internet.
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Learn how lateral reading can combat fake news. Based on research with professional fact checkers, from the Stanford History Education Group.
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View this quick demo on using Google's reverse image search tool to fact-check and research images. Have you ever wondered about the source or history behind an image? Google image search can help provide answers.
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TEST YOUR SKILLS
Test your news literacy fitness with the quizzes below. Exercise your right to be well informed!
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From the News Literacy Project, test your news literacy knowledge with these 12 questions.
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The best way for you to help reduce misinformation online is to avoid sharing it. But can you tell the difference between social media posts that are false or misleading and those that are credible?
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Test your fake news judgement by playing Factitious. Depending on how you swipe, Factitious provides feedback - whether your swipe was correct or incorrect, whether the article cites sources that can be checked, whether the story includes direct quotes from credible sources.
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SUBSCRIPTION DATABASES
The CJHS media center's research database page provides access to 35+ subscription databases with credible information in the form of published journals, magazines, reports, documents, newspapers, books, image collections, and more. When you search one of these databases, you are not searching the web; you're searching material that is the equivalent of what you used to find on a library shelf in print format.
Make sure to check out our newest subscription database, ProQuest U.S. Major Dailies. US Major Dailies offers full-text access to an outstanding newspaper collection: The New York Times 1980 to present; Wall Street Journal 1984 to present; Los Angeles Times 1985 to present; Washington Post 1987 to present; Chicago Tribune 1985 to present. Magazines, book reviews, online articles, podcasts, blogs and videos are also included. For a full publication list, including date ranges, click here.
Make sure to check out our newest subscription database, ProQuest U.S. Major Dailies. US Major Dailies offers full-text access to an outstanding newspaper collection: The New York Times 1980 to present; Wall Street Journal 1984 to present; Los Angeles Times 1985 to present; Washington Post 1987 to present; Chicago Tribune 1985 to present. Magazines, book reviews, online articles, podcasts, blogs and videos are also included. For a full publication list, including date ranges, click here.
Click on image for access to CJHS databases.
Database passwords required.
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NEW! Click on image to access databases via MackinVIA. Login with Google Single Sign-On.
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TRUSTED ONLINE NEWS SOURCES
Looking for some trusted online news sources? Here are a few to try that provide a range of perspectives. It is a good practice to read across the spectrum for a balanced and informed viewpoint (and also to combat filter bubbles). You can find more curriculum-specific online sources on the media center's Research Websites page.
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The AllSides Mission is to "strengthen our democratic republic by freeing people from filter bubbles so they can better understand the world — and each other." News stories are displayed from the Left, Center and Right of the political spectrum, side by side, to give a complete picture of current events.
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The Week describes itself as a source helping readers to understand "all the issues, from all angles." For a balanced perspective, stick to the News section, rather than the Opinion section.
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The British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) Online News has a bias rating of "Center" from AllSides, although at times has displayed a lean-left bias. According to Pew, BBC is more trusted than distrusted among the different ideological groups except for consistently conservative individuals who view BBC as about equally trusted as distrusted.
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USA Today is an American daily newspaper that provides both news and entertainment coverage. USA Today has a bias rating of "Center" from AllSides.
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