Media Literacy Guide: Evaluating the News

The SMART Check is particularly helpful when evaluating news stories.  Determine if your news source is SMART before believing what is reported.  

S     Source:

• Where did the story come from? 
• Is it a reputable news source?

M    Motive  

• Why do they say so?  Do they have a special interest or bias that may cause them to slant information

A   Authority

• Who is the author of the story?
• What are their credentials?

R   Review

• Go over the story carefully
• Does it make sense?

T   Two-source test

• Check for other sources about the story.
• Does the two-source test confirm or contradict the story? 

SMART comes from the University of Washington Libraries

Organizations monitoring media bias - from descriptions from Wikipedia

Non-partisan:

• Center for Media and Public Affairs
• FactCheck
• Facts on File
• ALLSIDES

Conservative:

• Accuracy in Media
• Media Research Center
• NewsBusters

Liberal:

• Center for Media and Democracy
• Fairness and Accuracy in Reporting
• Media Matters for America

The CRAP test is a checklist of questions to ask when evaluating any source. Not all the items need to be checked but one or two from each should help you decide the credibility of a source.

C Currency: the timeliness of information

• When was the information published or posted?
• Has the information been revised or updated?
• Is the information current or out of date for your topic?
• Are the links functional?

R Reliability: consistently verifiable and credible information

• What kind of information is included in the resource?
• Is content of the resource primarily opinion?  Is is balanced?
• Does the creator provide references or sources for data or quotations?

A Authority: the source of the information

• Who is the author/publisher/source/sponsor?
• Are the author's credentials or organizational affiliations given?
• What are the author's credentials or organizational affiliations given?
• What are the author's qualifications to write on the topic? What identifies them as an expert on that topic?
• Is there contact information, such as a publisher or e-mail address?
• Does the URL reveal anything about the author or source?

P Purpose: the reason the information exists   

• Why was this source created? To sell, inform, persuade?
• Who is the intended audience? Experts or new-comers? Students or educators?
• Check language, content of page for bias. Are there any red flags?
• If advertising is present on a page, is it separate or related to the informational content?
• Check to see what the point of view is of the author or the sponsoring organization:
  • Look for “About the Author” or “About Us” links
  • Shorten the URL to find out about hosting site
  • Search for author/organization in search engines like Google
  • Search for author/organization in periodical databases like EBSCO and ProQuest

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It can be difficult to determine what is trustworthy news and what is not. Try these games to see how you do:

• Factitious Game  - test your ability to discern real news from false
• The Fakeout Game - Your social media feed has been infected by false information. Your job is to learn the skills of verification, so you can sort fact from fiction — in the game, and in real life.

1. It can't be verified   A fake news article may or may not have links in it tracing its sources; if it does, these links may not lead to articles outside of the site's domain or many not contain information pertinent to the article topic.

2. Fake news appeals to emotion: Fake news plays on your feelings - it makes you angry or happy or scared. This is to ensure you won't do anything as pesky as fact-checking.

3. Authors usually aren't experts: Most authors aren't even journalists, but paid trolls.

4. It can't be found anywhere else: If you look up the main idea of a fake news article, you might not find any other news outlet (real or not) reporting on the issue.

5. Fake news comes from fake sites: Did your article come from abcnews.co? or mercola.com? Realnewsrightnow.com? These and a host of other URLs are fake news sites.