Use critical thinking in evaluating the quality and reliability of news sources and websites.
To determine the quality of information on a website or in a news article check the following five criteria:
Authority / Accuracy / Objectivity / Currency / Coverage
Authority – Who is responsible for the content of the page? What are the individual or organization’s goals and purpose? Is there contact info? What’s the domain?
Accuracy – Are the sources for any factual information clearly cited? Is the information free of errors that would indicate a lack of quality control or produce inaccuracies in the information?
Objectivity – Is there bias? Who’s the intended audience? Is advertising playing a role?
Currency – Date published? Date last revised? Out-dated info? Out-dated links?
Coverage – Page still under construction? Does it address intended topics or has something significant been left out? Is there a fee to get to some of the information? Is the info well supported and cited?
Set up your Google Scholar settings to link you to some of SSU Library's database holdings to get more full text results!
For a video tutorial CLICK HERE
For step-by-step directions in print see DOC below
Search the full print editions of numerous national newspapers via these library links.
Locate any news magazine in our databases (such as Time, Newsweek, etc.) by searching for a magazine title in the library's periodicals directory and then linking to that magazine:
