1. INFORMATION LITERACY:
THE IMPORTANCE OF EVALUATING
NEWS
Willie Miller
Informatics & Journalism Librarian
Indiana University-Purdue
University Indianapolis
2. TODAY’S AGENDA
Defining Information Literacy
Evaluating News
Bias
News v. Opinion
Real World Examples
Other Concerns
5. EVALUATING NEWS
“The media tells us what is important and what is
trivial by what they take note of and what they
ignore, by what is amplified and what is muted or
omitted.”
Len Masterman, Teaching the Media (1985)
6. BIAS
Prejudice in favor of or against one
thing, person, or group compared with
another, usually in a way considered to be unfair
or one-sided.
7. DETECTING BIAS IN REPORTING
Partiality
One-sidedness
Unbalanced selection or presentation
Tendency or inclination that prevents a fair of balanced approach
Temperamental or emotional leaning to one side
Favoritism that distorts reality
Personalized, unreasoned judgment
Predisposition or preference (Sloan & Mckay, 2007 p. 6)
Subjective languages
Subtle insults
Questionable quotes
8. NEWS | VERSUS | OPINION
News Opinion
Informs
Based on multiple
viewpoints
Facts speak for
themselves
Objective and impersonal
Persuades
Based on singular
viewpoints
Presents informed
arguments
Subjective and personal
Source: newstrust.net
9. EVEN TRUSTED SOURCES CAN
PRESENT BIAS VIEWPOINTS IN
THE NEWS. IT
IS, THEREFORE, IMPORTANT THAT
YOU ABLE TO DETECT IT.
10. GROUP ACTIVITY
Read news article
Determine if it has bias
Identify 4 in-text examples to support your
claim
Report to the class on your findings
12. RESOURCES
News Resources
Google News
Newspaper Source (EBSCO)
Newspapers (ProQuest) (click on News and Newspapers)
Journalism Research Guide
New York Times
NPR
Fox News
Also
Factcheck.org
For APA Help
Purdue OWL