The workshop opened with an ice breaker, having students brainstorm three things they look for when deciding whether a news Website is believable. They did a quick pair-and-share, and then I recorded what they said on the white board. Next, I broke them into teams of two and asked each to look at two Websites and complete a worksheet. In our lesson, Source A was a Reuters news article and Source B was a Bipartisan Report article. Both are on the same story, although Source A correctly identifies it as happening in January 2016 while B plays it as if it just happened (October 2016). The worksheet included questions which showed similarities as well as differences. It took about 15-20 minutes for the students to complete the worksheets; then we discussed the answers. Talking points: Source A is a Reuters news report, while Source B is from a muckraking site. Both are on the same story, although Source A correctly identifies it as happening in January 2016 while B plays it as if it just happened (published Oct 2016). Discuss which criteria made a difference in judging the credibility- and which weren’t important- notably, the domain name, the advertising presence,a nd the date were not significant. Note that it’s best when the reporter has done the reporting themselves, not just repeating other media outlets’ reports. Would people on the left be more willing to believe the bipartisan report because it fits into their worldview? We need to be careful to avoid confirmation bias: believing a source is legit because we want to believe what it says. Opinion journalism is a good and valuable resource but it’s different from NEWS. With opinion journalism, you need to verify the facts in the story. In opinion pieces, they are making an argument and you need to analyze it. After the discussion, I had students brainstorm three criteria they would now use to evaluate a news source. They shared out, and then I collected them for a quick assessment later.

This activity has been shared and modeled for non-librarian and librarian instructors. The materials can be used in support of a real assigned research project/ paper or with example sources. We encourage the use of actual student research materials to be used in the classroom portion of this activity so students can continue use beyond the interactive exercise. It is not recommended that this activity be implemented during a one-shot library instruction session due to the length of time required. It can, however, be introduced in a one-shot library instruction session. Materials used for this can also be distributed to academic support partners including but not limited to composition faculty, writing centers/ labs, tutors, reference areas, or other front line staff who students engage with questions about research or writing.