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Evaluating News: Home

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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

Figuring out what news to trust can be overwhelming, especially fast-breaking news. Use these questions to guide you.

Questions about the news item:

  • What sources are cited?
  • Are multiple sources used or just a few? (More sources are better.)
  • Do those sources have education, training or personal knowledge about the topic?
  • What perspectives or biases might the source have? 
  • Does the source provide evidence, or only assertions or opinions?
  • Are sources anonymous? Is a credible reason given for keeping a source anonymous? 
  • Does the author use neutral language, or is it inflammatory or designed to elicit a reaction?
  • Does the author provide a larger context for the story?
  • Does the story seem complete or is something being left out? Does it leave you with more questions you'd like to find answers to?
  • Have you found multiple other news sources reporting similar news independent of each other? (In other words, they aren't all citing one news site as the source.)
  • If the site itself is unfamiliar, do a search online for the title of the news source, the author, and individuals and organizations mentioned in the news item to see what others have said about them. Use the SIFT Test to guide you.

Questions to ask yourself:

  • Are you responding to the news item intellectually or emotionally? Does it seem like the news item is purposely tugging on your emotions?
  • Are you being objective in your reading or are you letting your existing opinions sway your evaluation?
  • Have you thoroughly evaluated and researched the news item before using or sharing it with others?

These questions were adapted from materials provided by the Center for News Literacy

Evaluating Unfamiliar News Sites

Four quick moves to make when you're evaluating a source.

SIFT: Stop, Investigate the source, find better coverage, trace claims, quotes and media to the original context.

STOP a moment when you first visit a page or post. Do you know the website/source? What is its reputation? If you don’t know, try the moves below to get a sense of what you’re looking at. 

INVESTIGATE the source. You don't have to be exhaustive. Open a new tab and do some quick searches on the website, author or organization producing the information to determine whether the source credible and worth your time.

FIND a better source. If your investigation shows the source isn't so great, or you scan the source itself and it doesn't even seem worth investigating further, move on to finding a better source. 

TRACE claims, quotes and media to their original context. If the source makes a claim, quotes someone, or provides audio or video clips, try to find the original source. That lets you know if it's represented fairly and accurately. 

This was adapted from SIFT (The Four Moves) by Mike Caulfield and may be reused in accordance with the same license. 

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Fact-Checking Sites

Use these sites to determine whether claims you find online, in the news, or on social media are accurate.

Verifying Images

Not sure if a photo is fake or misrepresented? Try these resources to verify the source!