Evaluating News Sources

It's important to carefully evaluate the news source to determine the validity of the information. Use our checklist to determine the creditability of what you are reading.

Evaluation Checklist

• Purpose:  What is the purpose of the publication?  Is it to inform or persuade? Is it biased? Does it provide more than one point of view? 
• Author:  Is the author's name listed? Are the author’s credentials, such as educational background, occupation, or affiliation or listed?
• Writing:  Are there a lot of mistakes? Are there misspellings, bad punctuation, or slang?
• Timing:  When was it written? How current is it?  Is there a publication date?
• Sources:  Are there any citations? If there are citations with links, where do the links lead? Can it be confirmed by other sources?
   

Tips and Tricks

• If you are clicking on a lot of links to get to the source, the cited information might be false or taken out of context
• Look at the URL. Many hoax news sites use a .com.co to fool people into thinking it is a real site
• Check out the "About Us" section to learn about the source