Media Literacy And Bias News And Newspapers Guides At University Of

Bonisiwe Shabane

-Dec 6, 2025, 7:46 PM

media literacy and bias news and newspapers guides at university of

There is a vast amount of online information, and navigating the validity of different sources is an important aspect of media literacy. When you encounter online news, it is important to slow down and evaluate the information before citing or sharing the source. Below are some resources to help students and researchers find accurate and useful online news. The SIFT Method (Stop, Investigate, Find, Trace) is an efficient strategy for navigating online information to determine if a source is credible or not. Follow these four steps to analyze the credibility of a source. When you are first confronted with an online news source, stop to see if it is a reliable source before citing or sharing.

Do you know the author(s)? Is the headline misleading? Do a search to find out more about the author and source that is publishing the article. What can you find out about the source? Do a quick search t find what other news outlets are saying about the same information. How do other sources compare?

Media Literacy is the practice of taking in media messages and understanding their influence on your thoughts, feelings and behaviors. When you interact with a media message it can be helpful to ask yourself some key questions: When you ask these questions, you're developing your media literacy. The goal of media literacy is thoughtful engagement and informed decision-making about the information you consume. Another example of media literacy in action is working to uncover any kind of bias that might be present within a message. Bias can be defined as prejudice in favor of or against one thing, person or group compared with another, usually in a way considered to be unfair (Oxford Languages Dictionary).

Identifying bias can be tricky because it is not clearly stated. Bias can exist on a spectrum of political ideology, religious views, financial influence, misinformation, and more. All sources should be evaluated for potential bias - from a tweeted link to a scholarly article. When you suspect you may be engaging with biased media a good best practice is examining the language and tone of the message. Other times, bias can be identified due to a lack of cited sources. Or the sources the author chooses to cite may be questionable or unverified.

Guide content supports the teaching and research goals of multiple departments on campus. Content represents a non-exhaustive selection of essential resources and tools for engaging a wide range of backgrounds and viewpoints. To view the old version of the News and Newspapers guide, click here Newspaper articles are great research tools. They can keep you up to date on current affairs. They can also serve as primary sources and enable you to put events into historical context.

The University of Iowa Libraries have numerous resources that will allow you to locate news materials on a local, national and international scale. This guide includes information on media literacy and bias, artificial intelligence and research tips. Links to Access World News, LexisNexis, election guides, The Perch, and citation generator Historical U.S. and international newspapers including links to minority newspaper collection Media have tremendous power in shaping political and cultural narratives—telling us what and who matters, why things are as they are and what it would mean to change them.

An informed and critical audience challenges news media to be fair, independent and accurate. Here are some questions to ask yourself about news you consume, whether it’s in print, online, on TV or radio or in your social media feed. Make note of the people quoted in the story, and at what length. Who is considered an expert on the subject? Media tend to over-rely on “official” sources like government, corporate and think tank representatives, and often fail to highlight the perspectives of ordinary people most affected by a problem, or their advocates. A 2014 FAIR.org survey of major cable news discussion programs shows a stunning lack of diversity among the guests.

Everyone harbors some level of bias, either implicitly or explicitly. Media bias relates to the underlying influences (usually political) that affect how news is presented across different credible news sources. Media outlets and news organizations DO NOT all present the news from the same point of view. Reading one news story is NOT a comprehensive way to understand the whole story. Reading from multiple points of view is crucial to news literacy and spotting media bias. Inherent biases can shape how news is covered. Journalists may be asked to "spin" a story that reflects the values of the news organization, sponsors, and stakeholders. How a news story is presented (images, language, and tone are good indicators of the type of bias presented) can be identified by watching the same story on different news videos or reading the...

The purpose of understanding NEWS LITERACY is understanding that media bias exists and to intentionally seek out multiple news sources (THAT ARE CREDIBLE) so that you are exposed to different levels and types of... You can use FACT CHECKERS to help evaluate news stories to determine their accuracy. Snopes, Politifact, and AllSides are good examples. Each of these examples provide a range, rating system, or scale to measure facts in news stories. AllSides.

Nonprofit providing diverse perspectives. Offers media bias ratings, civil dialogue opportunities, and a technology platform are available. American Press Institute, API. Nonprofit educational group, affiliated with News Media Alliance, that helps publishers understand and engage audiences. News Literacy Curriculum for Educators is API's free curriculum and resources for teaching news literacy. Center for Media and Democracy.

Non-profit investigative reporting group that focuses on exposing corporate spin and government propaganda with PRWatch, SourceWatch, BanksterUSA, and ALECexposed.org. Free Press. Monitors the media landscape and sounds the alarm when people’s rights to connect and communicate are in danger. Focus: Saving Net Neutrality, achieving affordable internet access for all, uplifting the voices of people of color in the media, challenging old and new media gatekeepers to serve the public interest, ending unwarranted surveillance,... Media Matters for America. Progressive research and information center dedicated to comprehensively monitoring, analyzing, and correcting conservative misinformation in the U.S.

media. Factcheck.org: Produced by The Annenberg Public Policy Center, FactCheck is "a nonpartisan, nonprofit “consumer advocate” for voters that aims to reduce the level of deception and confusion in U.S. politics. See also SciCheck for fact-checking science-related stories. OpenSecrets.org: "Nonpartisan, independent and nonprofit, the Center for Responsive Politics is the nation's premier research group tracking money in U.S. politics and its effect on elections and public policy."

Openstates.org: Open States is a collection of tools that make it possible for citizens to track what is happening in their state's capitol by aggregating information from all 50 states, Washington, D.C., and Puerto... PolitiFact.com: PolitiFact is a fact-checking website that rates the accuracy of claims by elected officials and others who speak up in American politics. PolitiFact is run by editors and reporters from the Tampa Bay Times, an independent newspaper in Florida, as is PunditFact, a site devoted to fact-checking pundits. The PolitiFact state sites are run by news organizations that have partnered with the Times. Snopes.com: Founded by David Mikkelson, who lives and works in the Los Angeles area. What he began in 1995 as an expression of his interest in researching urban legends has since grown into what is widely regarded by folklorists, journalists, and laypersons alike as one of the World...

Be aware of: bias, political propaganda, intentional disinformation, satire, attention-seeking click-bait, conspiracy theories, and sloppy reporting. ASK: Who wrote it? Who benefits? Who is left out? From IFLA (International Federation of Library Associations and Institutions), 2017. MSC 1704 880 Madison Dr Harrisonburg, VA 22807

© 2024 James Madison University Libraries by webmaster | Feb 4, 2025 | Media Literacy | 0 comments Today, countless websites and apps share news, changing not only how we get information but also how often we receive it. Even with more information available than ever before, this doesn’t mean we’re better informed. In addition, the prominence of opinion journalism has risen over the years and is present everywhere from newspapers, to TV news programs, to social media. Opinion journalism presents their audience with an opinion and is meant to provoke a discussion or persuade their audience.

However, news journalism has a different purpose. News journalism is meant to inform the public without trying to persuade the audience one way or another. So, how do you tell the difference, and how do you ensure that the news sources you are consuming are truly meant to inform and not persuade? Look for clues Many pieces of opinion journalism and sponsored content have clues to let us know that the article or video is meant to persuade rather than inform. Consider bias as a spectrum All news sources contain some level of bias. However, when we consider news to be on a spectrum of less biased to more biased, we can evaluate sources more effectively.

Media Literacy And Bias News And Newspapers Guides At University Of

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