Guides: Fake News: Home

News Literacy is the ability to use critical thinking skills to judge the reliability and credibility of news reports, whether they come via print, television, the internet or social media (Digital Resource Center, Course Pack).

Current Issues

Guide to help students research current events topics and think critically about information found.

Mistakes Were Made (but not by me)

Why we justify foolish beliefs, bad decisions, and hurtful acts.

How well can you tell factual from opinion statements?
Pew Research Center
Can you tell the difference between factual and opinion news statements?
Test your ability to classify 10 news statements as either factual or opinion. Then see how you did in comparison with a nationally representative group of 5,035 randomly selected U.S. adults surveyed online between February 22 and March 4, 2018. The analysis of the findings from the study can be found in the full report, "Distinguishing Between Factual and Opinion Statements in the News." Take the quiz and share your results with us on Twitter @PewJournalism.

Regardless of how knowledgeable you are about each topic, would you consider each statement to be a factual statement (whether you think it is accurate or not) or an opinion statement (whether you agree with it or not)?
Can You Spot the Deceptive Facebook Post?

"And that brings us to tonight's word: Truthiness. Now I'm sure some of the word-police, the "wordanistas" over at Webster’s, are gonna say, "Hey, that's not a word!" Well, anybody who knows me knows that I am no fan of dictionaries or reference books. They're elitist. Constantly telling us what is or isn't true, what did or didn't happen...”

– Stephen Colbert, October 17, 2005, The Colbert Report

Lee, Samantha and Shana Lebowitz. "20 cognitive biases that screw up your decisions." Business Insider, 26 Aug. 2015, 12:38, www.businessinsider.com/cognitive-biases-that-affect-decisions-2015-8.

CAPOW Handout

Currency	What is the publication date or last date updated? Is the content timely, useful, and valid for your information need?
Authorship	Who wrote the content? What makes that individual author or organization qualified to write it? What other information about the author is included? Who sponsored the content?
Purpose	Is the purpose of the content to inform, to entertain, or to promote a product or service? Who is the intended audience? Does the information seem credible? If so, can you check the information against another resource (i.e. book, journal article, newspaper, etc.) for credibility?
Objectivity	Is content biased? Are opinions balanced or does the author have an agenda? How does the bias influence the information?
Writing Style	Does the information contain a bibliography, references, or a comprehensive list of sources supporting its theme, topic, or agenda? Is content presented at an appropriate level for an academic research paper? Does the supporting information fit your research need? Is the work complete, or is it a summary of other work?

Is my source scholarly?
From the Undergraduate Library of the University of Illinois at Urban-Champaign.

"How to Spot Fake News." IFLA, 13 Feb. 2017, www.ifla.org/publications/node/11174.

The Psychology Behind Fake News, Adam Waytz

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