What types of news articles are you reading? A traditional news site will contain different types of stories: hard news reports, editorials, feature stories, reviews, and comments.
What is the purpose for your reading? The amount of diligence you put forth in verifying your sources may depend on whether you are reading for entertainment, information, or conducting academic research.
If you are writing a paper for class (academic research) you definitely want to know that the information is from an authoritative or reliable source. Perhaps the Associated Press or the Wall Street Journal can provide a bit more credibility than the National Enquirer or Empire News.
The Society of Professional Journalists’ Code of Ethics lists four guiding principles: seek truth and report it, minimize harm, act independently, and be accountable and transparent.
This is the type of journalism and reporting to look for in academic research.
Look to the library databases to find professional reporting among the news sources available.
These outcomes are relative to the ACRL Framework for Information Literacy
