Real vs. Fake News: How To Avoid Lies, Hoaxes, and Clickbait and Find the Truth: Finding Reliable News

The Luria Library subscribes to several databases that include reliable newspapers, news magazines, and broadcast news transcripts. Keep in mind that these sources will include opinions as well as facts. Use the strategies on the "Evaluating Sources" page to help you determine the purpose and accuracy of specific articles you find. To access these resources from off campus, you will need to log in with your Pipeline username and password:

• AP NewsMonitor Collection Provides access to top world-wide news from Associated Press for the past 30 days.
• Ethnic NewsWatch Includes journals, magazines, and newspapers from ethnic and minority presses.
• Newspaper Source Plus Provides the full text of articles from more than 1,210 newspapers, more than 130 newswires, nearly 50 news magazines, and provides more than 1.4 million TV & Radio News Transcripts.
• US Newsstream Provides full-text access to current U.S. news content from newspapers, newswires, blogs, and news sites. Archives dating back to the 1980s are also included. Specific titles include: New York Times; Los Angeles Times; Wall Street Journal; Christian Science Monitor; Washington Post; and USA Today, as well as hundreds of local and regional newspapers.

The following news websites are generally considered to be reliable and unbiased. Keep in mind that some articles may present opinions as well as fact.

• The Center for Public Integrity One of the country's oldest and largest nonpartisan, nonprofit investigative news organizations, winner of the Pulitzer Prize.
• Christian Science Monitor An independent international news organization that seeks to give readers the information they need to come to their own conclusions.
• Reuters An international news agency headquartered in London.

An echo chamber or filter bubble is the result of website algorithms designed to determine which content you want to see and which you don't, based on your past behavior and other information about you. Over time, the web content you see represents an increasingly narrow range of information and ideas, and you are exposed to fewer and fewer experiences, ideologies, and perspectives that differ from yours.

To see filter bubbles in action:

• Watch the video on the "Home" page of this guide for more information about filter bubbles.
• Explore this interactive graphic created by The Wall Street Journal demonstrates how Facebook feeds differed for liberals and conservatives during the 2016 presidential campaign. The Vox article How Social Media Creates Angry, Poorly Informed Partisans elaborates on this phenomenon.
• If you have your own Facebook account, you can follow the instructions in this article from The New York Times to find out how Facebook has labeled your politics.

To get out of your own filter bubble:

• Disable Google's Personalized Search: Click "Settings" on the lower right of the Google search page, and select "History" from the menu. Click on "Activity Controls" from the left menu, then uncheck the box next to "Include Chrome browsing history and activity from websites and apps that use Google services."
• Seek Out Information From A Range of Credible Sources: Start by exploring some of the sources on the "Finding Reliable News" page of this guide. To get a better sense of the range of opinions on a news topic, use AllSides, a news services that "exposes bias and provides multiple angles on the same story so you can quickly get the full picture, not just one slant."
• Try The Tips In These Articles:
  • The Reason Your Feed Became An Echo Chamber -- And What To Do About It
  • Escape the Echo Chamber: How to Fix Your Facebook News Feed