Nora Baldner, Assistant Professor of Communication at Quincy University, recently delivered a program about media literacy. The program, "Trust but Verify: Navigating the Media" provided techniques to help everyone figure out fact from fiction. Here are a few takeaways from that event.
1. Ask yourself 5 questions to start deciding if a news item is credible: Is it authentic? Has it been confirmed? Is there evidence? Is the context accurate? Is it based on solid reasoning?
- Baldner called these gut check questions
2. Try one of the following techniques to make sure information is accurate:
-Reverse image search (especially helpful when dealing with AI)
-Research the actual news source
-Lateral reading: open up new tabs to verify author, source, and information
-Recognize biases, your own and those in the media
-Learn and hold sources to journalism standards (yes, they still exist)
3. Transparency is key. Both for journalists as well as media critics.
-See if journalists and other sites are open about their methods and research
4. Some websites that are worth using to check sources:
- adfontes.com
- factcheck.org
- newslit.org
- realclearpolling.com
TL;DR fact checking is hard and takes a lot of time! But finding the truth is worth it and makes for a better informed and equitable world.