Conquer It
We’ve seen how important it is to verify historical sources and news stories. It is also important to verify if our sources are biased or unbiased.
It’s your turn! Take a look at the historical sources below. They are newspaper headlines. Remember, Mr. Lexington says that sometimes sources are made by people with a particular point of view. They have a strong opinion that comes through the source. We learned there are five ways to know if a source is biased or if it tells both sides of a story. Let’s take a minute to review the ways you can identify bias in a source.
-
Word Choice - Watch out for strong words that show judgement, like “evil” or “crooked.” These sources may not be telling the all sides of the story.
-
Image Choice - Photographs or drawings are sometimes used to make the subject look good or bad.
-
Details - Try to determine if the source is telling the whole story or a part of it. Are there any details missing?
-
Opinion pieces or Editorials - Opinion pieces and editorials look like newspaper articles, but they actually share a specific person’s view about something.
-
Advertisements - Sometimes advertisements are disguised to look like news articles.
Can you separate these headlines into biased or unbiased sources? Pay attention to the word choices to help make your decision.
> Text version for interactive
What makes the biased headlines different from the unbiased headlines?