Among the most common sources people use to get their news are: Facebook news feeds, social media (Twitter, Snapchat) re-posts from others sharing news items, NPR (National Public Radio), NBC television, etc. In class I shared with you two web sources that critically evaluate news stories and news sources: PolitiFact and ad fontes media (Media Bias Chart).
[insert 2 images here: 1) Politifact logo and 2) small image of ad fontes Media Bias chart ]
I would like you to spend some time digging into both of these websites to learn more about how they go about analyzing the news to see if there is something you can learn that might be useful in doing your own critical reading* of news about politics. (Response due Wednesday (10 points); reply to at least one other student’s post due Friday (5 points)) Be prepared to discuss your chosen articles and answers in class on Thursday.
A. ad fontes media. https://www.adfontesmedia.com/ad-fontes-media-weekly-rated-articles/?v=402f03a963baLinks to an external site.
- In ad fontes media, choose one of the stories from the past 3 weeks that they chose to rate for bias and reliability.
- Find the location (coordinates) on the Media Bias chart where the researchers’ ratings place the article (e.g., -18.1 bias, 33 reliability)
- Read the article.
- QUESTIONS: What was the source and date of your article? Who was the author? What was the headline? What rating was assigned to your article? How does that rating translate to bias (liberal or conservative) and accuracy (higher or lower) on the Media Bias Chart? Do you agree with the ad fontes media ratings (bias, reliability) for that article? Why or why not? If you disagree, what rating(s) would you assign and why? Whether you agree or disagree, support your answer with evidence, either from the article itself or other reliable sources.B. PolitiFact. https://www.politifact.com/ Links to an external site.Go to Politifact (PF), choose a story they have fact-checked, and follow the same procedure as for part A, above.
QUESTIONS: Which PF story (headline, source) did you choose? Do you agree or disagree with the PF rating (true, mostly true, mostly false, false, pants on fire)? If you disagree, what rating would you assign? Explain why or why not with supporting evidence.
C. Reflection.
QUESTIONS: Which of the methods (PolitiFact’s or ad fontes media’s) do you find most useful for critical reading of a news source? Is there anything you disagree with about their approach? Is there anything you think is missing from their approach? What have you learned from either or both of these methods that you think may help you in your own critical reading of news about politics? How does your reading from your textbook in chapter 7 affect your assessment of the value of these two approaches? (In particular, see p. 247 – “Evaluate a News Source”)
NOTE: Please label your written answers with the A, B and C headings that apply to the questions.
*[Critical reading = maintaining healthy skepticism about what you are reading, looking for clues about its reliability and bias.]
ASSIGNMENT: MEDIA – Evaluating for Reliability and Bias – Short Answer Essay
INSTRUCTIONS: When you open the “quiz”, you should also open both of the articles using the links provided, plus the websites that originated the articles. You will have 15 minutes to review the two articles and their related websites to compare them for reliability and bias as sources of information on “bullying.” You are comparing the article (A) prepared by the American Academy of Pediatricians with the article (B) prepared by the American College of Pediatricians, and their respective websites.
When the 15 minutes has expired you will have 5 minutes to write your evaluation, using the prompt in each of 3 questions. (The Quiz timer is set for a total of 20 minutes to complete both the reading and answering tasks.)
Finish this Assignment before doing Discussion No. 2.2.
QUIZ:
Source A – article: https://medicalxpress.com/news/2014-05-stigma-root-ostracism-bullying.html (Links to an external site.) website that produced article: www.aap.org (Links to an external site.)
Source B – article: Bullying at School: Never Acceptable | American College of Pediatricians (acpeds.org) (Links to an external site.) website that produced article: www.acpeds.org (Links to an external site.)
After reading the articles from both Source A and Source B, return to the home page for each website that produced the articles and then answer the 3 questions, taking into consideration both the article and the website.
QUESTIONS:
1. For information about “bullying”, which source, A or B, do you rate as more reliable? Why? What evidence supports your evaluation?
2. For information about “bullying”, which source, A or B, do you rate less biased? Why? What evidence supports your evaluation?
3. Describe, step-by-step, the process you followed on-line, during your 15 minute review of the articles, to reach your conclusions. Why did you follow these steps?
The previous assignment to compare the two articles on bullying at the websites of the American College of Pediatricians and the American Academy of Pediatrics was an exercise that roughly replicates a study by Stanford researchers to compare brief Internet “critical reading” approaches among 3 groups: professional fact checkers, historians and university students.
Please go to https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=3048994 and read the abstract of the Stanford study (Item No. 6), and/or open the full article here: Lateral Reading – Standford study.pdf and read at least pages 9-11, 13-20. Compare your approach and results when you reviewed the two articles and their websites, to what the 3 groups in the study did: professional fact checkers, historians and university students. Note especially the colored bar chart on page 13 and the participants’ self-reflection on their own approaches in Tables 2 (p. 15), 3 (p. 17-18) and 4 (p. 18-19) .
QUESTIONS FOR DISCUSSION:
1. Which one of the 3 groups of participants from the study did your approach most closely match? Explain your reasoning.
2. Which approach by which group did the study’s authors conclude was the best? Do you agree with their conclusion? Why or why not?
3. Based on what you have read from the Stanford study, have you changed your opinion about the suitability of the approach you used when you did your own review of the two bullying articles? If so, what would you do differently? If not, why not?
AFTER answering questions 1-3 below, read the following criticism of the Stanford study: Amer Coll Peds criticism of Stanford study
4. Does this criticism from the American College of Pediatricians change your view about the validity of the Stanford study? Why or why not? Does it change your view about the value of “lateral reading” for initial review of news (or other information) sources? Why or why not?
5. Is there anything you learned from this assignment that will affect your future approach to critical reading of information sources? If so, how? If not, why not?
RESPONSE DUE Friday (10 points); REPLY to 2 classmates DUE Saturday (5 points).
Additional Resources
Other resources and documents used in class for this Module, including PowerPoint lecture slides, are in the Appendix.
