Choosing Your News

One of the ongoing challenges of AP Seminar - or just life in general - is finding news that's credible and current.  Nothing undermines an argument, or is more embarrassing, than quoting an illegitimate source. With the proliferation of news on the Internet, though, it's becoming harder and harder to find trustworthy sources.

There's a now infamous story about how the Chinese newspaper, People's Daily, quoted a satirical piece published in The Onion.  The Onion had jokingly proclaimed Kim Jong Un as the "sexiest man alive" in a parody of People magazine's "Sexiest Man Alive" issues.  People's Daily apparently mistook the parody for a serious feature.  Oops.

We spend a lot of time in my class discussing strategies for avoiding the same fate.  Here are links to two of the videos that I use to introduce the topic to my students.

Both are from TedEd and both are great for starting a discussion about trustworthy sources.

How to Choose Your News

How False News Spreads

I also really like this chart for assessing the credibility of a source.

During my AP Seminar training, we were introduced to the R.A.V.E.N. method for assessing credibility, but I find that my students have more success with the chart above.  Ultimately, though, use whichever method works best for you and your students.