Tracking the Truth: Media Bias and Media Bastions

mediabiaschart

Do you give a Kahoot?

Pre-Quiz: Can You Spot the Fake News Story?

"How Does Your Favorite News Source Rate on the ‘Truthiness’ Scale? Consult This Chart. The one above is the "first draft" from 2016. Check this 2021 version.

Why aren't people persuaded by facts?

It's the way we are raised in the U.S. We learn that it's wrong not to be right.
"Why Fact-Checking Doesn't Faze Trump Fans." The Atlantic, 5 July 2017
Sometimes a person's values trump their ability or desire to reason: "Liberals Are Terrible at Arguing with Conservatives. Here’s How They Can Get Better." The Washington Post
"Information bubbles": "Why Fake News Is So Incredibly Effective." Time, 28 Nov. 2016
"Confirmation Bias." (Blog) 23 June 2010
"Why the Pundits got the election wrong: How confirmation bias shaped our view of facts." Salon, 27 Nov. 2016.
"As Fake News Spreads Lies, More Readers Shrug at the Truth," NYT, 6 Dec. 2016.
- “I just like the satisfaction,” said Mr. Laughlin, who started his own business and lives in an affluent Twin Cities suburb. “It’s like a hockey game. Everyone’s got their goons. Their goons are pushing our guys around, and it’s great to see our goons push back.”

"What are Facts and Opinions?" BBC 2011

How do news sources check the facts? "How to Fact Check The Atlantic." 25 Jan. 2018. (A very detailed description of verifying the facts.)

Red-flag news source analysis--what to look for and what to avoid: "Fake Or Real? How To Self-Check The News And Get The Facts" NPR, 5 Dec. 2016

Is it ALL fake? Is it ALL slanted? Not from professional journalists: The SPJ Code of Ethics.

Tracking the Truth

The Congressional Record: Track daily debates and search for your representatives' and senators' voting records, summaries of bills, etc., information directly from the Congress	Library of Congress The largest repository of primary sources of information aside from the Internet itself.
Fact Check.Org A Project of the Annenberg Public Policy Center: In an era of ever-increasing "fake news" sources, unreal "reality TV," entrenched political bias, science deniers, and rampant propagandizing, check your facts before you espouse your opinions or quote falsehoods.	Snopes "Welcome to Snopes.com, the definitive Internet reference source for urban legends, folklore, myths, rumors, and misinformation."
Fact Checker. A service of The Washington Post Hoaxy for visualizing the spread of claims and fact checking.	Urban Legends "Where you'll find the most popular urban legends and be entertained with email rumors, recent Internet hoaxes and stories you swore actually happened to your friend's, cousin's, pet sitter's, roommate, when she was in college."

Post-Quiz: Use your new "tools" and your "nose for news" to spot the REAL "fake news"!

"You are entitled to your own opinion. But you are not entitled to your own facts." David Patrick Moynihan

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 3.0 Unported License.