Facts matter, but Americans are having trouble these days separating fact from opinion.
A 2018 Pew Research Center survey found that only 26 percent of American adults could distinguish which five statements out of 10 were facts and which were opinion. Only 35 percent could determine which five were opinion, and 96 percent of high school students didn’t challenge the credibility of an obviously unreliable source.
If most Americans can’t tell the difference between fact and opinion, it’s no wonder the country is polarized. And, that presents a question: how are we going to fix this problem?
The information landscape is more complex today than it has ever be. Every way we turn, we have more information thrust at us. Given the spam, phishing, hoaxes and viral rumors that circulate, the need to be certain of our media and information literacy skills is greater than ever.
Understanding more about routines, practices and principles journalists use to acquire and disseminate information are elements of media literacy and understanding more about how the press does its job can help citizens can become more media and new literate.
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One thing to remember is that news gathering is not a neat process. Breaking news can be especially chaotic, and commonly not even the officials on the scene are sure what exactly is happening.
For example, journalists report what they’re told by official sources, but they also have an obligation to try to verify information with more than one source. Sometimes ,sources don’t have the right information. If a journalist verifies information between sources, he or she is more likely to get the right facts into circulation.
Sometimes, competitive factors sneak into reporting, and in the race to be first with a story, a reporter gets a fact wrong. When that happens, the news organization has an obligation to correct the story as soon as it learns it’s published incorrect facts.
That’s one reason reporters like to use official materials and documents whenever possible – they’re good for verifying what human sources tell them. Human sources can help a reporter understand the context of a story while documents generally offer cold, hard facts. Both facts and context are necessary to ensure accuracy, balance and fairness, which are essential elements of good journalism.
The News Literacy Project has training materials available at its website for educations and individual citizens to use to improve their media and news literacy skills. It also offers quizzes that will help you assess your news literacy. Try starting with this news literacy quiz – see if you can beat me (I scored 11.66 out of 12): https://newslit.org/tips-tools/how-news-literate-are-you-quiz/
Debbie Reddin van Tuyll is Editor-in-chief of The Augusta Press. Reach her at debbie@theaugustapress.com
