Social Studies Middle School Guide

Five Factors for News Literacy - RumorGuard

Five Factors

Questions

Students should be able to… To determine whether something they see online is genuine or has been doctored or fabricated through: • Knowing the definition of mis, dis, and mal information. • Practicing Lateral Reading • Conducting Reverse Image Searches To become familiar with journalism standards and to recognize that standards based news organizations have guidelines to ensure accuracy, fairness, transparency, and accountability. To recognize source bias. To identify false claims as • sheer assertions • digital fakes • out-of-context elements To evaluate the strength of evidence of a claim, such as: • Practicing Lateral Reading • Conducting Reverse Image Searches • Searching the web To verify the original context of digital content through: • Practicing Lateral Reading • Conducting Reverse Image Searches To learn how to logic-check claims through identifying: • cognitive biases • vulnerability to logical fallacies

Prompts

This information has been/has not been manipulated and/or fabricated because…

• Is the information authentic?

Authenticity

This source follows these standards of quality of journalism… This source is/is not biased because… The following evidence proves/disproves this claim….

• Has it been posted or confirmed by a credible source?

Source

• Is there evidence that proves the claim?

Evidence

The original context of the information is verifiable/not verifiable because…

• Is the context accurate?

Context

The information is free of/contains: • logical fallacies

• Is it based on solid reasoning?

Reasoning

• conspiracy theories

News Literacy Project. (n.d.). RumorGuard . News Literacy Project. Retrieved April 28, 2025, from https://rumorguard.org © 2025 Jodi Ide, Teacher Specialist, Canyons School District. All rights reserved. Sharing or reproduction permitted with author’s permission.