Evaluating your sources
In this class you will be reading many Biology news article for your News Journal. You will summarize the information you read, but you will also evaluate the accuracy of the information in the article. When it comes to getting your news, the most important thing is that the information is reliable and accurate! But how do you know? It really requires you to think like a detective and do some leg work.
Steps in evaluating accuracy:
- Become familiar with the news source. Who is publishing the material? It is a well respected news organization? Not all publication sources are created equally. Some have clear motives for publishing various news pieces. A little googling on the source itself can usually turn up problems, if it isn't reputable.
- Who is the journalist? Most reputable new sources have links to the journalist who wrote the piece to give you more information about them. Does this individual have an established career as a journalist? Have they been covering science topics for a long time?
- Next, you should follow up on sources mentioned within the article. See if they mention a specific scientific study, or not. If they don't you might question what evidence is backing up the piece. If they do, you should check it out! Science is made publicly available when scientists publish their finding in scientific journals. These are written by scientific experts for scientific experts, so they are different then the media sources you are following for this class as a media consumer. You don't have to understand all the technical jargon, but usually by reading the abstract (or summary of the article) you can get a sense of the major contributions to science. Does it matches the article you were reading? You could also google each of the scientific authors to see what their research is normally in and if it matches what is being said here. Stating the authors’ names, where they work, and what they work on to make sure it all matches. It's also worth checking that the "scientific journal" is in fact a respected peer-reviewed journal. Peer-reviewed is the standard in scientific journals because it means that other independent scientists have looked over the methods and results and agree with the findings. If you run into "pay walls" you can get around them by using the Clemson library's online resources in most cases.
- Look for quotes in the article... or a lack there of. Check out the people who are quoted. A quick google search of the "experts" will let you know if they are in fact experts in the discipline to which they are giving an opinion.
- Watch out for inflammatory language. Some reports are alarming by the nature of the facts while others may seem alarming just based on the words that are used in the story. Does the message accurately capture the truth of a situation or finding?
- You can run some claims through 3rd party sites like PolitiFactLinks to an external site., The Washington Post Fact CheckerLinks to an external site., or SnopesLinks to an external site. that do some of the fact checking work for you. This is usually most effective if you think you've found something untrue online.
- Are there other things you can think of to help with your search for the truth? This is not an exhaustive list, so if you have another piece of evidence to add, go for it!
- After your entry has been graded, look back at any comments I leaves. That way, if something was missing from your analysis, you don't loose points more than once! When it comes to assessing sources, practice makes perfect!
Assignment
For this assignment, you can choose any biologically relevant news article that looks interesting to you. This news article should come from one of the three news sources you plan to follow for the class. You will read the article and write a summary about the information that is being shared and why you choose the article. After your summary, you will also write a paragraph that describes your assessment of how accurate the information is and why using the steps above. Please upload your assignment as a .doc or .docx file to this page. This will be your first News Journal entry. For exact formatting and specific information on how you will be graded, see the News Journal Rubric.