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Information Literacy: 04. Fake News, Bad News, & Vetting Information

Strategies used to incorporate research skills for the College of Arts and Sciences and the Graduate School of Management.

Mis-information and Dis-information

Resources To Help You Spot False Information Or Biases

                   

News Media Biases Graph

This graph helps visualize how news media can be biased. This site also includes an interactive map that covers hundreds of news sources and is searchable.

Six Questions To Help You Figure Out What Media To Trust

From traditional news sources to social media and beyond, it can be challenging to figure out whether something is trustworthy. Author, journalist, researcher and media critic, Tom Rosenstiel offers great advice that can help you with the daunting task of figuring out what media sources to trust. Rosentiel offers six questions that can help you be a more critical thinker and keep you from being misled. These questions are the same ones that editors and media producers use to edit stories and create web pages:

Also, when evaluating resources, remember to check your biases and consult the experts. Confirmation bias leads people to put more stock in information that confirms their beliefs and to discount information that doesn’t.  The next time you’re appalled at some social media post, take a moment to do a little digging. 

Importance of Journalism (John Oliver)

In this lengthy YouTube video (19:22), comedian John Oliver of Last Week Tonight, humorously discusses the importance of journalism, and our society's reliance on it. Funding deficiencies have led to fewer reporters covering the state house, local issues, scientific findings, or the federal government. The Fourth Estate is a shadow of what it once was thanks to abundance. This was not what we thought would happen. 

Browser Extensions and Other Tools

There are browser extensions available that may help you gauge the trustworthiness of content on news sites.  There are also tools available that assist with visual verification; these can help you identify the source of an image and determine if an image or video has been altered.  Below are some examples of these resources: