The American Library Association defines information literacy as "possessing the set of skills to recognize when information is needed and have the ability to locate, evaluate, and use effectively the needed information."
If your mother says she loves you, check it out - old newspaper saying
Below we have included several tips and suggestions for being a savvy consumer of information - whether it comes from social media, news sites, or a text from your friend. Many of the resources on this page come from an article by librarian Joyce Valenza, an Assistant Professor of Teaching at Rutgers University School of Information and Communication.
"People across the political spectrum often feel that “the media” is biased against their beliefs and values. But what counts as bias in news? And why do so few people feel that news coverage is slanted in their favor?" -- The News Literacy Project
Media Bias/Fact Check which describes itself as "the most comprehensive media bias resource on the internet. There are currently 2900+ media sources listed in our database and growing every day. Don’t be fooled by Fake News sources. Use the search feature above (Header) to check the bias of any source. Use name or url." -- NewsGuard gives the good marks for credibility and transparency.
This helpful chart was created not by a journalist but by a patent attorney with a degree in English and a passion for analyzing the media. Despite her lack of formal expertise in this field, her analysis is sound and based on more scholarly articles from the Pew Research Center and MediaBiasFactCheck. The chart has gotten a ton of press and has been continuously improved and updated, so be sure to go to the source to see the latest version (it is not auto-updated on this site), and to read about how it was compiled.
Otero, Vanessa. Media Bias Chart 3.0. All Generalizations Are False, 8 Nov.
2017, www.allgeneralizationsarefalse.com/. Accessed 21 Nov. 2017. Chart.
Balance - equality between the totals of the two (or more) sides of the account. Balance is a more technical term than fairness. It's a quantitative measurement that can be used as a tool to achieve fairness, especially in cases where the facts are in dispute or the truth is still developing.
Bias - a predisposition that distorts your ability to fairly weigh the evidence and prevents you from reaching a fair or accurate judgment.
Clickbait - a sensationalized headline or piece of text on the Internet designed to entice people to follow a link to an article on another Web page.
Confirmation Bias - pursuing information that reassures or reflects a person’s particular point of view.
Content Farm - a website that exploits the way search engines retrieve and rank pages by incorporating popular search terms and topics in its content, often with little attention to the originality, appropriateness, or quality of the subject matter, in order to elevate the ranking of its articles in online search results and attract advertisers.
Context - background or ancillary information that is necessary to understand the scope, impact, magnitude or meaning of new facts reported as news ... the circumstances that form the setting for an event or statement ... ideas or facts that give greater meaning to a news report so that it can be fully understood and assessed.
Glurge - the body of inspirational tales which conceal much darker meanings than the uplifting moral lessons they purport to offer, and which undermine their messages by fabricating and distorting historical fact in the guise of offering "true stories." Glurge often contains such heart-tugging elements as sad-eyed puppies, sweet-faced children, angels, dying mothers, or miraculous rescues brought about by prayer. These stories are meant to be parables for modern times but fall far short of the mark.
Hoax - something intended to deceive or defraud; to deceive by a hoax; hoodwink.
Ostension - the process of unwittingly acting out or mimicking the greater part (if not the entirety) of an urban legend that is already part of the body of lore. More simply, if the events described in an urban legend which had been around since 1950 actually did indeed spontaneously play out in real life in 1992, that would be an example of ostension. (In other words, just because something actually happened doesn't mean it's not an urban legend!)
Propaganda - information, ideas or rumors deliberately spread widely to help or harm a person, group, movement, institution or nation. It is often biased and misleading, in order to promote an ideology or point of view.
Satire - the use of irony, sarcasm, ridicule, or the like, in exposing, denouncing, or deriding vice, folly, etc.
Urban Legend - a specific class of legend, differentiated from "ordinary" legends by their being provided and believed as accounts of actual incidents that befell or were witnessed by someone the teller almost knows (e.g., his sister's hairdresser's mechanic). These tales are told as true, local, and recent occurrences, and often contain names of places or entities located within the teller's neighborhood or surrounding region.
Definitions from Dictionary.com, Snopes, and The Stony Brook University Center for News Literacy
Use the criteria below to evaluate the appropriateness of a website for academic research.
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