Newsletter

We’re inundated with information 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, 365 days a year. We have around-the-clock news updates not just on our televisions but also in the palm of our hands on our phones. With so much information, it’s hard at times to discern between fact and opinion and to identify which news sources are valid. 

I can only imagine how challenging this must be for adult learners.

It’s interesting, and honestly a bit horrifying, to see the exact same current event covered in very different ways across different media sources. As educators, we have to help our students find ways to evaluate media and information so they can learn to identify trustworthy information. 

One resource I want to share with you is a free tool from Ad Fontes Media, an organization that evaluates news outlets and rates them for accuracy and bias in their reporting. After analyzing reporting, the Ad Fontes team organizes the news sources into their Media Bias Chart. The more accurate a source tends to be, the higher it appears on the chart. The less biased a news source is, the closer to the center it is situated. 

Ultimately, you’ll find the most accurate and least biased information placed higher on the chart nearest to the center. You can also click on different news outlets to read articles and see how the researchers evaluated them.

A way you might consider using this in your classroom is by having students read articles from different sources and identify facts and opinions and compare them to articles on the same subject from a different news outlet. This could open up interesting conversations on how biased information might influence our own ideas about a certain topic and how identifying trustworthy information resources is critically important in today’s society.

Not only does helping our students better understand media literacy provide the essential skill of distinguishing fact versus opinion in reading materials, it will also help them be more informed members of our communities. By using real-world resources, you’re helping to build confidence in your students as they navigate these challenges on their own.