Misinformation and Fake News

Evaluating News Sources:

Choose a number of online news sources that might relate to your class assignment of the topics students are researching. If you would like to do something a bit more broad and timely try choosing some of these "popular" news sources like The Rebel, The National Post, The Slate, Salon, Breitbart News Network etc.

Have the students review the source itself by browsing the front page of the source and scanning a couple of the articles. Answering the questions below, have the students present to the class on how trustworthy the sources are:  

When evaluating the news source that has been assigned to you please answer the following questions:

1. What kind of content is being covered in this source?

2. Do the articles cite their "evidence" within their text? Please list if they provide evidence to support their claims either from a person, a document, an expert, other credible organizations or news sources. 

3. How current is the content on the site? How current are the "news" topics covered?

4. Do any of the news stories present a clear bias?

5. Does the news source overall present a clear bias?

6. What is missing from this news source, if anything? 

7. Can you tell from looking at the source how "authoritative" their journalists are? If yes how did you figure this out? 

8. When reading the news we should be learning something. Looking at the front page of the source in front of you are they covering stories you think you need to learn and understand?

Based on: Six questions that will tell you what media to trust https://www.americanpressinstitute.org/publications/six-critical-questions-can-use-evaluate-media-content/