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Critical Evaluation of News Sources

Learn how to determine the credibility of news articles and sites, understand the importance of journalistic integrity, and perform basic fact-checking measures.

Introduction

The swift technological changes that have swept the world over the past thirty years have led to a “new” breed of news media, shifting from more investigative and objective to more subjective and argumentative. In the past five years, these changes have led to increasingly partisan divides over which media outlets are trustworthy and bred confusion about how to analyze everyday news outlets for credibility and bias. Concern over clickbait, “fake news,” and partisan disinformation has led to the teaching of countless workshops, classes, and information literacy sessions. Unfortunately, the frustration continues. This research guide will explain some of the different kinds of news stories you may find and guide you through the steps of evaluating these sources.