Evaluating Media Sources

What should you expect from journalism?

Reputable media sites usually describe their ethics and standards on their website. Journalists often use checklists to ensure that each piece of reporting is reliable and high quality. These lists will give you a sense of what you can expect from a reputable news source. Build your own fact checking skills by taking an online course or looking into what good journalists do.

• Seek Truth and Report It. This includes fact-checking, not intentionally distorting information, identifying sources, avoiding stereotypes, and supporting the open exchange of opinions.
• Minimize Harm. This includes demonstrating compassion for sources and subjects of stories and protecting the privacy of individuals. Interestingly, the code makes no prohibition to interfere with national security.
• Act Independently. This includes avoiding conflicts of interest and corruption, and resisting the attempts of advertisers and special interests groups to influence the news.
• Be Accountable. This includes correcting mistakes, inviting criticism, and exposing unethical practices of the media.

• Fact Checking Course

From the Poynter Institute, this online self-paced course teaches you how to fact check like a pro.

• NPR Accuracy Checklist

Part of the NPR Ethics Handbook, this checklist reminds journalists of their expectations for accuracy and professionalism.

AllSides

All Sides is a news website that presents multiple sources side by side in order to provide the full scope of news reporting. The Allsides Bias Ratings page allows you to filter a list of news sources by bias (left, center, right). AllSides uses a patented bias rating system to classify news sources as left, center, or right leaning. Components of the rating system include crowd-sourcing, surveys, internal research, and use of third party sources such as Wikipedia and research conducted by Groseclose and Milyo at UCLA. Note that while the Groseclose & Milyo results are popular, the methodology it is not without critique. The AllSides Dictionary examines nearly 400 controversial terms. Definitions are the results of discussions among 30 academics and mediators representing the full political spectrum.

AFP Factcheck

AFP Fact Check is a department within Agence France-Presse (AFP), a multi-lingual, multicultural news agency whose mission is to provide accurate, balanced and impartial coverage of news wherever and whenever it happens in the world on a continuous basis.

FactCheck

A nonprofit consumer advocate for voters that aims to reduce the level of deception and confusion in U.S. politics. They monitor the factual accuracy of what is said by major U.S. political players in the form of TV ads, debates, speeches, interviews and news releases.

Pew Research Center - Political Polarization

Survey data reveals the news source favored by people according to their political beliefs. A report based on a 2014 survey shows which news sources are used and considered trustworthy based on individual's political values (liberal or conservative). Note that this report measures the political leanings of the audience rather than the source itself.

Politifact

News and fact-checking by a not-for-profit national news organization, owned by the nonprofit Poynter Institute.  not-for-profit national news organization.

Blue Feed, Red Feed

 An interactive tool from the Wall Street Journal that allows you to "See Liberal Facebook and Conservative Facebook, Side by Side"

The Blue Feed, Red Feed tool relies on data from a large study of Facebook users conducted in 2015 by Bakshy, Messing, & Adamic. The ideological alignment of news sources on Facebook was measured based on the stated ideological affiliations of users who interacted with the content.