Making sure that information is true isn’t easy. Our correspondent takes you through the arduous process of fact-checking a news story. Illustration by Ana Schwartz for News Decoder When I first started out in journalism as a 17-year-old, I had never heard of...
Correspondent Norma Hilton models the process of fact-checking in this important article for students and adults alike. In a world inundated with instantaneous information at our fingertips, knowing how to distinguish fact from fiction is ever-critical.
Exercise: After reading the article, have students dissect the fact-checking process modeled in the text. Prompt a class discussion on what the process looks like in practice, step-by-step. Did anything about the process surprise them? Then, in pairs, students should fact-check a short news text (either one they’ve selected or one you provide to them). Which sources should they examine to confirm that the text is credible?
What one correspondent learned by writing an “enhanced biography” of a little-known 19th-century teenager from Borneo. The 15-year-old Malay, known to history only as “Ali” is featured on this graffiti signboard in Ternate, Indonesia. The artist refers to Wallace’s...
It can be difficult to tell the difference between fact and opinion. And some things we consider true may not be true to all people. (Illustration by News Decoder) At News Decoder we are all about fact-based journalism. That means that the information in a news story...
We teach teens to see the world through a journalistic lens. But what does that mean? And how can that help to teach global awareness and media literacy? Two journalists reporting from a war zone. (Credit: South_agency from Getty Images Signature) Journalists look for...
At News Decoder everything we do is designed to foster global awareness and make us all better global citizens. Problems cross borders. The solutions connect us. We can all be better global citizens by seeing what is happening around us in relation to what happens...
When the business model for news corporations depends on blurring the lines between fact and opinion, how can we move from partisanship to problem solving? Photo illustration by News Decoder. In 2017, the political landscape collectively scoffed at Donald...
With news media inundating our feeds with content, youth guest author Skyler Kelley Duval dissects the blurred lines between fact and fiction. Central to being able to responsibly consume media is investment in critical thinking and media literacy education in schools. Are your students media literate?
Exercise: Read the article with your class, then introduce the CRAAP test to your students as a tool to evaluate media sources. The CRAAP test assesses sources for Currency, Relevancy, Authority, Accuracy and Purpose — with a goal of determining trustworthiness. You can find an example of the CRAAP test here. Consider analyzing a media source together as a class using the test.
We ask young people what they want to be in life. But do we allow them to become the best person they can be? This can’t be done in a single class lesson. Illustration by News Decoder What kind of learning do we seek? That’s what Veronica Boix Mansilla asked an...
The world gathered in Africa to fight climate change, Ukrainians battled to save their nation, in the U.S. candidates battled for control of Congress. It is time to take a deep breath and think: What else happened? End-of-year current events quiz News Decoder...
Algorithms that track the terms we plug into search engines determine what appears on the pages we pull up. Why does that feel so creepy? SEO concept by Anya Berkut/Getty Images More and more, we seem to get ads related to topics we plug into a search engine — long...
News Decoder has been a return to roots for me — a startup with slim financial returns that belie both its social worth and the joy of working with youth. The author is the founder of News Decoder. This month he is turning over management of the educational nonprofit...
