by Tiffany Whitehead, February 2020

We live in a tumultuous news landscape, and with the upcoming 2020 Elections, there is no doubt that the noise is only going to get louder. School librarians have always been leaders in information literacy, stepping up to the plate to lead the charge in educating teachers and students about the importance of news and media literacy skills. The challenges have become more and more evident in recent years. Thankfully, new tools and resources are constantly being shared to help us better understand the need for building the conversation around news literacy and equip our students with the means to better sift through news sources.

The first step in helping our students navigate the news is to assess their current understanding of news sources and how they are vetted. The frequently referenced 2016 report by the Stanford History Education Group confirmed what librarians already know: students of all ages struggle to implement the critical steps necessary to question, analyze, fact-check, and deeply evaluate sources that they interact with online (Wineburg et al.). Students aren't the only ones that struggle to understand news sources. A 2018 study conducted by Pew Research Center found that when given the task of deciding if news headline statements are factual or opinion, both Republicans and Democrats are more likely to believe a statement is factual if it appeals to their political bias, even when the statement is an opinion (Mitchell et al.).

When I asked my own students where they most frequently find their news during a lesson on social media, they named SnapChat, Reddit, and Twitter as the places they most often go for news. Although these platforms are good at delivering content teens find interesting, engaging, and easily digestible, I can't imagine anyone arguing that they are helping to produce a balanced news diet.

Defining Media and News Literacy

Having an understanding of important terms and common issues is the first step in preparing yourself to address Media and News Literacy head on. According to the Center for Media Literacy, media literacy "provides a framework to access, analyze, evaluate, create and participate with messages in a variety of forms—from print to video to the Internet" (http://www.medialit.org/media-literacy-definition-and-more). News literacy could be considered a subset of media literacy. Stony Brook University's School of Journalism defines news literacy as the ability to "judge the reliability and credibility of information, whether it comes via print, television or the Internet" (https://www.centerfornewsliteracy.org/what-is-news-literacy/). News literacy relates specifically to journalism and news reporting.

Common Issues

Understanding bias has always been a key component in any information literacy instruction. Confirmation bias is inherent in our nature as consumers of information; we naturally gravitate towards information and sources that confirm and reinforce our established personal beliefs. Having students understand and identify their own biases is an important step in equipping them to be critical consumers of news. A useful tool in helping students understand and identify bias in media sources is the Media Bias Chart by Ad Fontes Media. This chart takes popular news outlets and graphs them on scales of political bias and overall source reliability (https://www.adfontesmedia.com/).

Eli Pariser's 2011 TED Talk on filter bubbles brought attention to the issue of how the search results and news we see are being tailored based on our browsing history (https://www.ted.com/talks/eli_pariser_beware_online_filter_bubbles). Social media makes it easy for users to find themselves in an echo chamber, where they are not exposed to a variety of opinions or sources. CNN Business released a short video in 2016 on how social media filter bubbles work, which can be used as a great discussion starter when engaging students in a discussion on the topic (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=doWZHFnVPQ8). The sharing of viral fake news stories on Facebook during the 2016 election was highlighted in an analysis by Buzzfeed (https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/craigsilverman/viral-fake-election-news-outperformed-real-news-on-facebook), and since that time the social media platform has worked to make adjustments to their algorithms to limit the sharing of misinformation. With the 2020 presidential election on the horizon, we cannot depend on social media sites to fight the spread of inaccurate, biased, and generally untrustworthy news sources. Using a variety of sources to fact check and verify information before sharing is a habit students must develop.

An interesting phenomenon to discuss with students when reinforcing the importance of verifying sources is circular reporting. This occurs when information from a single source appears to be supported by multiple independent sources. It is particularly problematic when a story goes viral, only to be discovered later that the one source being shared and reported on by many news outlets was in fact unreliable. Two great videos to introduce this topic to students are Ted Ed's "How False News Can Spread" by Noah Tavlin (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cSKGa_7XJkg) and "How does 'Fake' News Become News?" by Teaching Tolerance (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qcRWkkSvfj0&index=4&list=PLEH_mNM3Tk36UmeeXpzuHUoIgN5xBwozh).

Fact Checking Websites

There are a number of websites that aim to break the cycle of fake news and bias reporting that can be a great resource to librarians, teachers, and students. Students must understand that even the most reliable sources can sometimes be inaccurate or contain bias, so maintaining a critical mindset is essential. These websites, however, can still be important tools for fact checking.

AllSides — https://www.allsides.com/
AllSides proclaims "unbiased news does not exist." They aim to provide balanced news by providing access to center, left, and right leaning sources, in an effort to give readers the ability to see the full picture. This is a great tool for having students learn to identify bias and look at political issues from both sides. AllSides for Schools (https://allsidesforschools.org/) gives teachers access to activities and lesson plans to guide students in critically thinking about news and engage them in civil dialogue while developing important news literacy skills.

FactCheck.org — http://www.factcheck.org/
Affiliated with the Annenberg Public Policy Center of the University of Pennsylvania, FactCheck.org is a nonprofit "consumer advocate" that takes a nonpartisan approach in verifying accuracy in U.S. politics. Looking at everything from debates to news releases to popular Facebook stories, FactCheck aims to hold politicians accountable.

Media Bias/Fact Check — https://mediabiasfactcheck.com/
Media Bias/Fact Check is an independent online media outlet that evaluates the bias of different news sources. They have an extensive collection of popular and more obscure news sources they have evaluated and ranked by bias. Information is provided on the history and funding of news outlets in order to analyze and better understand bias from these sources.

Media Matters — https://www.mediamatters.org/
Media Matters is a nonprofit site that looks specifically at news outlets that are considered conservative sources and monitors them for misinformation. Their aim is to quickly research, analyze, and document news and commentary that supports conservative agendas with false claims or inaccurate reporting.

OpenSecrets.org — https://www.opensecrets.org/
The nonpartisan, nonprofit Center for Responsive Politics tracks money in U.S. politics to analyze the effects on elections and policy. They collect, organize, and publish important data on campaign contributions and lobbyist spending. The data published is widely cited by popular mainstream news sources.

Politifact — http://www.politifact.com/
Politifact originated with the Tampa Bay Times and was recently acquired by the Poynter Institute, a nonprofit school for journalists. In an attempt to avoid bias and political agendas by just reporting the facts, they use scales and rating systems to show how elected officials have made progress on campaign promises or maintained consistency on issues.

Real Clear Politics Fact Check Review — https://www.realclearpolitics.com/fact_check_review/
The Fact Check Review by Real Clear Politics fact checks the fact checkers. Each week, they review FactCheck.org, Snopes, Politifact, The New York Times, and The Washington Post, evaluating the source of claims, evidence, and verdicts.

Snopes — http://www.snopes.com/
The oldest fact-checking website around, Snopes has a reputation for being a site to check for hoaxes, email scams, and clickbait social media posts. In addition to being a go-to source for debunking hoaxes, Snopes also provides fact checking on popular, sensationalized headlines.

Resources for Teaching News and Media Literacy

Above the Noise — https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC4K10PNjqgGLKA3lo5V8KdQ
Above the Noise is a YouTube video series from KQED and PBS Digital Studios that is hosted by Myles Bess. Each week, they look at research and facts pertaining to a news topic that is currently trending or causing controversy. These videos can be a great resource when discussing current events and news literacy strategies with students.

Checkology — https://checkology.org/
Checkology is a web-based platform created by the News Literacy Project that provides interactive lessons that require students to evaluate information from a range of media and learn how to determine source reliability. Registering for a free account will give you access to a few sample lessons, but the full course is available via a per-user license.

Choices Program — https://www.choices.edu/
Brown University's Department of History has created the Choices Program, which is a curriculum that encourages students to engage in discourse on international and public policy issues. The Teaching with the News series provides free news literacy lesson plans that tie in current events headlines. They also have complete course units available for purchase on Current Issues, U.S. History, World History, and Geography.

Digital Resource Center, Center for News Literacy — https://digitalresource.center/
Stony Brook University's Center for News Literacy has a Digital Resource Center that provides 6-12 grade teachers with materials and lesson plans to support news literacy instruction. The full course materials include a set of twelve updated, in-depth lessons with embedded multimedia and guides for the instructor.

Factitious — http://factitious.augamestudio.com
Factitious is a free online game by JoLT and American University Game Lab that has students identify news articles with their provided sources as real (swipe right) or fake (swipe left). There are six game levels and players earn points by correctly identifying a source as real or fake.

Newseum ED — https://newseumed.org/
Newseum ED has an extensive collection of lesson plans, collections, videos, primary source documents, infographics, and professional development offerings available to educators for free. These high-quality resources aim to build media literacy skills through the lens of the First Amendment.

In a 2018 blog post for Britannica Digital Learning, I shared an idea for a Source Deck Activity on the topic of fake news. This is a great way to get students engaging with source documents on the topic to spark discussion (https://britannicalearn.com/blog/fight-the-fake-source-deck/).

Mike Caulfield's free eBook, Web Literacy for Student Fact-Checkers, dives into the necessary skills to help students become critical fact-checkers and includes a number of activities that could be used with students during news literacy lessons (https://webliteracy.pressbooks.com/).

Further Reading

There are two books I highly recommend by school librarians who I greatly respect on the topic. Both of these titles detail the issues that educators face when addressing the issue of news literacy, as well as giving many practical ideas on teaching important skills to students.

LaGarde, Jennifer, and Darren Hudgins. Fact vs. Fiction: Teaching Critical Thinking Skills in the Age of Fake News. International Society for Technology in Education, 2018.

Luhtala, Michelle, and Jacquelyn Whiting. News Literacy: The Keys to Combining Fake News. Libraries Unlimited, 2018.

Works Cited

Mitchell, Amy, Jeffery Gottfried, Michael Barthel and Nami Sumida. "Distinguishing between Factual and Opinion Statements in the News." Pew Research Center (June 18, 2018). https://www.journalism.org/2018/06/18/distinguishing-between-factual-and-opinion-statements-in-the-news/

Wineburg, Sam, Sarah McGrew, Joel Breakstone, and Teresa Ortega. "Evaluating Information: The Cornerstone of Civic Online Reasoning." Stanford History Education Group, 2016. http://purl.stanford.edu/fv751yt5934