news evaluation

Submitted by Carolyn Caffrey on June 9th, 2021
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Short Description: 

A toolkit with various instructional materials to teach media and news literacy. Includes an online activity "Fairness and Blanace" where students watch a short video on journalistic standards and answer discussion questions. Then, students can take one or both interactive tutorials on "Lateral Reading" with a focus on fact-checking and/or "Evaluating Information" based on an information need. Also includes a video on the "Anatomy of a News Website" with reflective questions and in-class assignment ideas for librarians or instructors.

Created by Tessa Withorn, Carolyn Caffrey Gardner, Aric Haas, and Amalia Casteneda.

Attachments: 
AttachmentSize
Teaching_Media___News_Literacy_at_CSUDH.pdfdisplayed 1381 times195.79 KB
Learning Outcomes: 
  • Identify characteristics of news sources (genre, balance, fairness, sources, etc.) in order to effectively interpret news information.
  • Evaluate evidence presented in news sources for verification, independence and accountability.
  • Identify capabilities and constraints of news and emerging media information sources.
  • Recognize the role cognitive bias plays in interpreting and evaluating information in news and emerging media sources.
  • Describe skepticism of news sources as a healthy part of the journalism ecosystem.

Individual or Group:

Collaborators: 
Suggested Citation: 
Caffrey, Carolyn . "Media & News Literacy Toolkit." CORA (Community of Online Research Assignments), 2021. https://projectcora.org/assignment/media-news-literacy-toolkit.
Submitted by Evelyn Hudson on May 5th, 2021
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Short Description: 

In this hands on activity, students will find and compare/contrast news stories on a single current event/topical discussion to learn the importance of lateral reading and understand how bias can influence information production. 

Learning Outcomes: 
  • Students will be able to find a variety of resources relating to a topic
  • Students will learn to evaluate credibility of information and information creators
  • Students will learn to read laterally relating to current events

Individual or Group:

Course Context (e.g. how it was implemented or integrated): 
Additional Instructor Resources (e.g. in-class activities, worksheets, scaffolding applications, supplemental modules, further readings, etc.): 
Potential Pitfalls and Teaching Tips: 
Suggested Citation: 
Hudson, Evelyn. "OMG, Laterally!: Objective media gathering and lateral reading Activity." CORA (Community of Online Research Assignments), 2021. https://projectcora.org/assignment/omg-laterally-objective-media-gathering-and-lateral-reading-activity.
Submitted by Justin de la Cruz on October 22nd, 2020
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Short Description: 

Background information, assignment, and reflection on analyzing information received from the news.

Attachments: 
AttachmentSize
Verifying Information in the News.pdfdisplayed 1048 times78.14 KB
Learning Outcomes: 
Students will learn how to analyze the information they receive from the news.
Students will reflect on how they receive and share information.

Information Literacy concepts:

Individual or Group:

Course Context (e.g. how it was implemented or integrated): 
Additional Instructor Resources (e.g. in-class activities, worksheets, scaffolding applications, supplemental modules, further readings, etc.): 
Potential Pitfalls and Teaching Tips: 
Suggested Citation: 
de la Cruz, Justin. "Verifying Information in the News." CORA (Community of Online Research Assignments), 2020. https://projectcora.org/assignment/verifying-information-news.
Submitted by Emilia Marcyk on October 25th, 2019
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Short Description: 

This class outline is based on the Four Moves and a Habit from Mike Caufield's Web Literacy for Student Fact Checkers.
It was designed for a first year writing class for students in an interdisciplinary STEM major. For their main class assignment, they were investigating a "fact" within their chosen scientific field, and tracing it to its origin. In addition to our in-class work they were also assigned to read:

Rekdal, O. B. (2014). Academic urban legends. Social Studies of Science, 44(4), 638–654. https://doi.org/10.1177/0306312714535679

The class was designed to take 70 minutes, with approximately 72 students attending. The attached PDF gives an outline for the lesson, with notes for further context.

Attachments: 
AttachmentSize
factchecking-presentation-and-outline.pdfdisplayed 1073 times1.34 MB
Learning Outcomes: 

Students will use the Four Moves and a Habit to trace the source of a claim, in order to:

  • understand where a claim originated
    make an informed choice about whether to believe a claim
  • incorporate similar strategies into future academic work
Discipline: 
Multidisciplinary

Individual or Group:

Course Context (e.g. how it was implemented or integrated): 
Additional Instructor Resources (e.g. in-class activities, worksheets, scaffolding applications, supplemental modules, further readings, etc.): 
Potential Pitfalls and Teaching Tips: 
Suggested Citation: 
Marcyk, Emilia. "Introduction to Fact Checking ." CORA (Community of Online Research Assignments), 2019. https://projectcora.org/assignment/introduction-fact-checking.
Submitted by Sara Davidson Squibb on May 9th, 2017
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Short Description: 

As part of a larger news evaluation campaign, Sara Davidson Squibb and colleagues (Lindsay Davis, Elizabeth McMunn-Tetangco and Elizabeth Salmon) created a jigsaw lesson to use with introductory writing courses. Students were asked to evaluate an article’s content, tone, and purpose in a large group before they discussed the article in the context of two other articles on the same topic in a smaller group. After these group discussions, the library instructor revealed the source of each news article and highlighted resources and strategies for learning more about news sources. Through the lesson, students were able to focus more on content, corroboration, and source knowledge (rather than a mere checklist) to make decisions about an article’s bias and level of accuracy. All four instruction librarians taught this lesson to multiple sections of introductory writing courses. Though the librarians started with an original set of three articles on the topic of health care enrollment, we also identified two other sets of materials that were targeted to the course content of specific introductory writing sections.

Attachments: 
AttachmentSize
Lesson Plan Outlinedisplayed 1735 times137.09 KB
Student Worksheetdisplayed 1101 times80.77 KB
Presentation Slidesdisplayed 1437 times1.27 MB
Article A redacted - HealthCare Enrollmentdisplayed 793 times134.71 KB
Article A - HealthCare Enrollmentdisplayed 767 times144.05 KB
Article B redacted - HealthCare Enrollmentdisplayed 706 times138.14 KB
Article B - HealthCare Enrollmentdisplayed 771 times140.93 KB
Article C redacted - HealthCare Enrollmentdisplayed 820 times166.21 KB
Article C - HealthCare Enrollmentdisplayed 706 times170.04 KB
Learning Outcomes: 

Students will be able to …
• make an initial determination of an article’s accuracy and bias based on an evaluation of content, purpose, and tone.
• discover the importance of corroborating information.
• identify resources that can reveal more information about a new source’s perspective.
• recognize that many factors may be considered when evaluating a news source.

Individual or Group:

Course Context (e.g. how it was implemented or integrated): 

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.

Additional Instructor Resources (e.g. in-class activities, worksheets, scaffolding applications, supplemental modules, further readings, etc.): 
Potential Pitfalls and Teaching Tips: 
Suggested Citation: 
Davidson Squibb, Sara . "News Evaluation – Beyond the Checklist." CORA (Community of Online Research Assignments), 2017. https://projectcora.org/assignment/news-evaluation-%E2%80%93-beyond-checklist.