Librarians contacted instructors of introductory writing classes and offered this one-shot lesson on news evaluation. Instructors provided class lists, and librarians made three student groups (A, B, C), matching each student with one article (Article A, etc.). Librarians provided redacted news articles, which instructors assigned to students to read prior to the library session.

The campus-wide breakout sessions were from 11:00-12:30pm (1.5 hours). Faculty were encouraged to cancel classes 8am-12:30pm so that students could watch the Inauguration together and attend one breakout session.

• Inauguration Day Teach-in website:  https://web.archive.org/web/20180117195647/http://academics.lmu.edu/teachin/breakoutsessions/

The library decided to offer four 45-minute break out sessions. Approximately 90 students attended. Several staff members and faculty attended also.

• Library Breakout Session Description: 

https://web.archive.org/web/20170113072807/https://librarynews.lmu.edu/2017/01/keepin-real-tips-strategies-evaluating-fake-news/

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.