University of Kwazulu-Natal

Understanding News Literacy Bias With The News Literacy Project

Bonisiwe Shabane
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understanding news literacy bias with the news literacy project

Scrolling through the comments on a news organization’s website or social media page reveals a widespread perception: Many people perceive bias in news coverage. Although, few people find that the news is biased in their favor. Young people are no exception. Almost 70% of teens believe that news organizations intentionally add bias to their coverage and only present the facts that support their own perspective, according to the News Literacy Project’s survey of teen information... During National News Literacy Week, the News Literacy Project’s Peter Adams led a webinar for educators that shared practical advice and tips to help students regain trust in credible news and to question faulty... Here are some takeaways from Adams’ presentation, which provided educators tools to teach this vital, controversial and complex topic in ways that empower students to meaningfully evaluate the fairness and impartiality of news coverage.

(View the recording.) Some organizations publish charts or rating systems that show where they believe news sites fall on a political spectrum. Although the creators of these rankings claim to make bias within news organizations more transparent, Adams warns against taking the representations at face value. Rankings appear to offer a solution for people looking to “unbias, unspin or decode news coverage,” Adams said. But they imply that bias is present in every newsroom and that the creator of such charts is objective enough to discern how to quantify each news organization. Adams recommends taking a critical look before basing opinions about news coverage on these tools.

Analyze not only how they represent different organizations, but the reasoning behind their conclusions. Adams also notes the importance of differentiating between news reports and opinion pieces. On some media bias charts, opinion pieces are included in a site’s ranking. Opinion pieces, which are not intended to be impartial, should be excluded when assessing whether a site’s news reports are neutral and credible. This video, the first in a series of expert events designed to help communities combat mis-, dis-, and malinformation meant to disrupt the electoral process, features Peter Adams of the News Literacy Project talking... These sources have minimal bias and use very few loaded words (wording that attempts to influence an audience by appeals to emotion or stereotypes).

The reporting is factual and usually sourced. These are the most credible media sources. See all Least Biased Sources. Bias Rating: LEAST BIASED Factual Reporting: HIGH Country: USA MBFC’s Country Freedom Rank: MOSTLY FREE Media Type: Organization/Foundation Traffic/Popularity: Minimal Traffic MBFC Credibility Rating: HIGH CREDIBILITY The News Literacy Project (NLP) is, as their About page states, “a nonpartisan national education nonprofit that works with educators and journalists to teach middle school and high school students how to sort fact... Read our profile on the United States government and media.

The News Literacy Project is a nonprofit that is funded through donations. 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.

Master skills, explore new ideas, and build your teaching toolbox with free live, recorded, and on-demand training. Learn about services designed to build educator capacity and cultivate dynamic educational experiences for students. We’ve got answers. Visit our Support Desk to learn how to set-up and use your My iCivics Account. Explore opportunities we’ve designed to create community and build your expertise. Still stuck?

Our Support team is standing by to help. Submit a request and we’ll be in touch. There is so much potential to use news to teach information competency and critical thinking skills within the context of your discipline. Instead of only relying on news alerts, social media, and news aggregator sites that are algorithmically-driven, have students actively seek out the news and apply evaluation criteria to determine credibility. Have ideas to share? Contribute to the Google doc!

Ideas for Contextualizing News by Academic Discipline The News Literacy Project is a nonpartisan education nonprofit that advances the practice of news literacy throughout American society, creating better informed, more engaged and more empowered individuals — and ultimately a stronger democracy. They offer a suite of free tools and services created for educators. According to a 2018 study, 82% of US college students think that news is important for a democracy, yet 36% of them don’t trust any news no matter what source it comes from. Source: Alison J. Head, John Wihbey, P.

Takis Metaxas, Margy MacMillan, and Dan Cohen (October 16, 2018), How Students Engage with News: Five Takeaways for Educators, Journalists, and Librarians, Project Information Literacy Research Institute, https://projectinfolit.org/publications/news-study/‎ What questions should you ask about a source to determine bias? Find valuable questions to ask yourself in the sources below. Need a quick reference for the political bias ? These "bias-checking" sites periodically review the news from a source to evaluate for bias and give it a rating from liberal to non-partisan to conservative. What does bias actually LOOK like in a news source?

The News Literacy Project has put together a list of types of biases and examples of how they might appear in writing other than just political bias. One way to identify bias is the practice of lateral reading which involves opening up more browser tabs to find additional information about the source you are reading. The video below explains why this is a valuable practice with useful examples. 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. LEARNING ACTIVITY SLIDES: COMPARING NEWS SOURCES AND COVERAGE

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Scrolling through the comments on a news organization’s website or social media page reveals a widespread perception: Many people perceive bias in news coverage. Although, few people find that the news is biased in their favor. Young people are no exception. Almost 70% of teens believe that news organizations intentionally add bias to their coverage and only present the facts that support their ow...

(View The Recording.) Some Organizations Publish Charts Or Rating Systems

(View the recording.) Some organizations publish charts or rating systems that show where they believe news sites fall on a political spectrum. Although the creators of these rankings claim to make bias within news organizations more transparent, Adams warns against taking the representations at face value. Rankings appear to offer a solution for people looking to “unbias, unspin or decode news co...

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Analyze not only how they represent different organizations, but the reasoning behind their conclusions. Adams also notes the importance of differentiating between news reports and opinion pieces. On some media bias charts, opinion pieces are included in a site’s ranking. Opinion pieces, which are not intended to be impartial, should be excluded when assessing whether a site’s news reports are neu...

The Reporting Is Factual And Usually Sourced. These Are The

The reporting is factual and usually sourced. These are the most credible media sources. See all Least Biased Sources. Bias Rating: LEAST BIASED Factual Reporting: HIGH Country: USA MBFC’s Country Freedom Rank: MOSTLY FREE Media Type: Organization/Foundation Traffic/Popularity: Minimal Traffic MBFC Credibility Rating: HIGH CREDIBILITY The News Literacy Project (NLP) is, as their About page states,...

The News Literacy Project Is A Nonprofit That Is Funded

The News Literacy Project is a nonprofit that is funded through donations. 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 ...