Instruction & Engagement Librarian
Fact Checking
Test your news sense! Play the Factitious game (pandemic edition) from JoLT and American University Game Lab
Questionable News
Questionable News
This is a site promoting news evaluation to high school students, but it is very biased. See if you can spot the bias!
Types of Media Bias
Types of Media Bias:
Omission – leaving one side out of an article or a series of articles over a period of time.
Selection of Sources – including more sources that support one view over another.
Story Selection – a pattern of highlighting news stories that support one side of an issue over another.
Placement – the location in the paper or article where a story or event is printed affects the impact.
Spin – story has only one interpretation of an event or policy, to the exclusion of the other.
Evaluate Your Sources
These sites allow you to find out more about the media sources you read. How are they rated on a political bias scale? How do others view these sources?
- AllSidesSee issues and political news with news bias revealed by non-partisan, crowd-sourced ratings.
- Media Bias/Fact CheckMedia Bias/Fact Check provides ratings for over 2,000 media sources on a scale from Left, Left-Center, "Least Biased," Right-Center, and Right Bias. There are also categories for Pseudoscience and conspiracy theories, and satire.
- Interactive Media Bias ChartThe Interactive Media Bias Chart® is a data visualization that displays measures of news (and “news-like”) articles and sources generated by analysts and staff of Ad Fontes Media.
Journalist Code of Ethics
The Society of Professional Journalists promotes a high level of ethical behavior for the members of their profession. Check out their Code of Ethics for more information, and seek out news sources that follow their guidelines.
Use Library News Sources!
- NewsBank This link opens in a new windowA comprehensive news collection useful for exploring issues and events at the local, regional, national and international level. Source types include print and online-only newspapers, blogs, newswires, magazines, broadcast transcripts and videos.
- NewsStream (ProQuest) This link opens in a new windowSearch the most recent global news content, as well as archives which stretch back into the 1980s featuring newspapers, newswires, blogs, and news sites in active full- text format
- New York Times This link opens in a new windowFull access to NYTimes.com and NYTimes mobile apps, including breaking news articles, blogs, videos and interactive features.To register, go to www.nytimes.com/passes & log in with your Cal Maritime email (@csum.edu). Renew once per year by logging in at www.nytimes.com/passes
- Ethnic News Watch This link opens in a new windowAn interdisciplinary, bilingual (English and Spanish) database of newspapers, magazines and journals from ethnic, minority and native presses.
Spotting Fake News
