Guard against misinformation
Last night we watched a whiteboard video and read a couple articles, all about dealing with misinformation:
- Protect yourself from misinformation (video)
- Protect yourself from misinformation (article)
- Can you trust the news media?
I particularly appreciated the last article, which highlights factors that contribute to bias in reports. It then makes the point: "While it is wise not to believe everything we read in the news, it does not follow that there is nothing we can trust." Finally, it outlines six factors to consider when evaluating reports: provider, sources, purpose, tone, consistency, and timeliness.
Afterward, we looked at the AllSides Media Bias Chart to see how some of our own go-to news providers rank. I tend to go to Reuters or AP News, which are listed as center and lean-left, respectively. We also talked about how purveyors like MSNBC and Fox News lean heavily on a tone of outrage to stir up their audiences. AllSides also has a homepage of major news items with headlines from across the spectrum.
Thinking about sources, I was reminded of a recent post from the Verge, No one's ready for this. Tagline: "Our basic assumptions about photos capturing reality are about to go up in smoke."
It is more important than ever to train ourselves to discern the reliability and trustworthiness of reports, identify bias, and have healthy but not unbridled skepticism of what we read, see, and watch.