INFORMATION LITERACY: THE IMPORTANCE OF EVALUATING NEWS

Willie Miller

Informatics & Journalism Librarian

Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis

TODAY’S AGENDA

Defining Information Literacy Evaluating News Bias News v. Opinion Real World Examples Other Concerns

INFORMATION LITERACYThe set of skills needed to find, retrieve, analyze, and use information effectively.

INFORMATION LITERACYThe set of skills needed to find, retrieve, analyze, and use information effectively.

EVALUATING NEWS

“The media tells us what is important and what is trivial by what they take note of and what they ignore, by what is amplified and what is muted or omitted.” Len Masterman, Teaching the Media (1985)

BIAS

Prejudice in favor of or against one thing, person, or group compared with another, usually in a way considered to be unfair or one-sided.

DETECTING BIAS IN REPORTING Partiality One-sidedness Unbalanced selection or presentation Tendency or inclination that prevents a fair of balanced

approach Temperamental or emotional leaning to one side Favoritism that distorts reality Personalized, unreasoned judgment Predisposition or preference (Sloan & Mckay, 2007 p. 6) Subjective languages Subtle insults Questionable quotes

NEWS | VERSUS | OPINION

News Opinion Informs Based on multiple

viewpoints Facts speak for

themselves Objective and

impersonal

Persuades Based on singular

viewpoints Presents informed

arguments Subjective and personal

Source: newstrust.net

EVEN TRUSTED SOURCES CAN PRESENT BIAS VIEWPOINTS IN THE NEWS. IT IS, THEREFORE, IMPORTANT THAT YOU ABLE TO DETECT IT.

GROUP ACTIVITY

Read news article Determine if it has bias Identify 4 in-text examples to support

your claim Report to the class on your findings

OTHER CONCERNS

Author Publisher Accuracy Publishing Date References

RESOURCESNews Resources Google News Newspaper Source (EBSCO) Newspapers (ProQuest) (click on News and Newspapers) Journalism Research Guide New York Times NPR Fox News

Also Factcheck.org

For APA Help Purdue OWL