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Media Literacy: Fake News, Misinformation, Scams, and Frauds: Home

Media Bias

Media Bias Chart

Web Literacy for Student Fact Checkers (free ebook)

Reading a website laterally means checking its sources before diving in. If the "About Us" page tells you up front that it is a satire, or fake news site (some do) you can move on. If you are still unsure you can Google the author, or publisher, or host of a site to find out more. This is also a good use of Wikipedia. Read the Wikipedia article about the organization, and if it doesn't have one, keep looking.

Recommended Reading

Bergstrom, Carl T. & West, Jevin D. Calling Bullshit: The Art of Skpticism in a Data Driven World. Random House, 2020.

Giles, Robert. When Truth Mattered: The Kent State Shootings 50 Years Later. Mission Point Press, 2020.

Levitan, Dave. Not a Scientist: How Politicians Mistake, Misrepresent, and Utterly Mangle Science. W.W. Norton, 2017.

Levitin, Daniel J. A Field Guide to Lies: Critical Thinking in the Information Age. Dutton, 2016.

Noble, Safina Umoja. Algorithms of Oppression: How Search Engines Reinforce Racism. New York University Press, 2018.

Sources

Fact Checking Sites

Find out who is behind the website. Try typing "whois" followed by a web address into a search engine (such as Google) to find out who owns the site. You will be able to make better determinations for biases, and discover if the site is a commercial entity with an agenda to sell a product, rather than providing researched information.