Evaluating News Sources

Workshop with the goal of helping students recognize that search tools, including Google, YouTube, and library systems, reflect power structures and have biases.

Class session outline with activities for first year writing students in STEM majors.

An assignment in which students observe and reflect on their use of media over a 3-day period.

Activity on thinking critically about sources and information found in Wikipedia.

Assignment description with rubric. Students give small group presentations examining how the popular media reports scientific findings.

Activity that teaches lateral reading techniques to evaluate an information sources.

Five lessons on fact and source checking that can be copied and adapted. Based on the SIFT approach:
1. Stop
2. Investigate the source
3. Find trusted coverage
4. Trace claims

Course materials for a 7-week course, taught at the University of Michigan, including assignments and an Open Canvas version of the course, available for re-using.

Model course syllabus and lessons "designed to teach students how to use critical thinking skills to judge the reliability of news and information they need to be productive citizens".

Open source textbook that explores approaches to evaluating the information in social media streams. By Mike Caufield, director of blended and networked learning at Washington State University Vancouver.

October, 2018.
The Project Information Literacy News Study research report presents findings about how a sample of U.S. college students gather information and engage with news in the digital age.

Research article. Brodsky et al., Cognitive Research: Principles and Implications, 2021.
Student who received a fact-checking curriculum improved their ability to evaluate online information.
Instructional materials used in the study are available.

January, 2020. Project Information Literacy study on how college students understand the modern information landscape.

Stanford History Education Group, 2017.
The full report on research assessing the information evaluation practices of students, faculty, and professional fact checkers.

King's website summaries the theory developed with Kitchner’s work that describes “the development of epistemic assumptions and how young adults and adults learn to make truly reflective judgments.” The page dedicated to educational implications is particularly useful as a reference for developing classroom activities and assignments.
For additional discussion see:
Love, P. G., & Guthrie, V. L. (1999). King and kitchener's reflective judgment model. New Directions for Student Services, 1999(88), 41-51.

Research found that students from middle school through college have difficulty determining when online information is trustworthy. November 22, 2016.