• Gain critical thinking skills needed for the new information frontier. |
• Learn not to fear information from the Internet. | • Catch people trying to fool you with inappropriate arguments and logic.. | • Learn how to arrive at the truth through logical deduction. |
[ Reading Material: Always keep your sources close! A list of suggested reading materials.]
[ Google Group: More examples of Op/Ed and Argument Failure ]
Visit Sage of Springfield
[ ProjectCensored.org ] To teach students and the public about the role of a free press in a free society - and to tell the News That Didn’t Make the News and Why.
[ politifact.com ] Following the claims made by political campaigns.
[ wikileaks.org ] Anonymously posted secret corporate / government documents.
[ factcheck.org ] Check the claims and assertions of political candidates.
[ cspan.org ] Your Government: You must check this site at least once per day.
[ cjrdaily.net ] Find out who owns the media
[ sourcewatch.org ] Monitors media propaganda
[ opensecrets.org ] Follow the money in politics
[ fec.gov ] The Federal Election Commission
[ nutritiondata.com ] Find out if you are eating right
[ fccinfo.com ] Find the real owners of radio and television stations.
[ washingtonpost.com ] The Washington Post
[ npr.org] National Public Radio
[ pbs.org ] Public Broadcasting System
[ apa.org ] American Psychological Association
[ opencongress.org ] Actively tracks the activity of the U.S. Congress.
[ whois.net ] Find out who owns the website you're looking at before making a decision based on it's message.
[ pogo.org ] Project on Government Oversight. an independent nonprofit that investigates and exposes corruption and other misconduct in order to achieve a more effective, accountable, open, and ethical federal government.
[ http://www.linktv.org ] Link TV: TV without borders.
[ http://electronicintifada.net ] The Electronic Intifada (EI): News, commentary, analysis, and reference materials about the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict from a Palestinian perspective.
Organizations keeping a close eye on the gatekeepers of news and propaganda machines that permeate the main-stream media.
[ Fair.org ] Fairness and Accuracy in Reporting
[ MediaLens.org/ ] Corporate Media Watch from the UK perspective.
[ aim.org ] Accuracy in Media
[ TalkingPointsMemo.com ]
[ http://jeffrey-feldman.typepad.com/ ] FRAMESHOP: Framing the debate. The language of politics
[ defconblog.org ]
[ alternet.org ]
[ truthdig.com ]
[ adbusters.org ]
[ prwatch.org ]
[ therealnews.com ]
[
] [ coanews.org ]
[ publiceye.org ] FYI from Political Research Associates.
[ newsbusters.org ] "Exposing and Combating Liberal Media Bias."
[
MediaMatters.org ] Monitoring and critiquing news personalities. (Notice any missing news personalities?)[ mediacrashers.blogspot.com ] "We're here to crash the party that the big media gatekeepers have been having at our expense for about the past 25 years."
[ freepress.net ] Free Press is a national, nonpartisan organization working to reform the media. Through education, organizing and advocacy, we promote diverse and independent media ownership, strong public media, and universal access to communications.
[ mediachannel.org ] MediaChannel is concerned with the political, cultural and social impacts of the media, large and small.
[ infoplease.com ] Statistics, with a regularly updated front page.
[ statemaster.com ] Graphical statistics (numbers are a bit older than the government's, but it's nice to look at.)
• Writing from one position only demonstrates a simplified perspective
• Know your sources and give them credit.
• Evidence, evidence, evidence!
• Know what you're not being told by the media. (when was the last time you saw an ad on television promoting fresh fruits and vegetables that was not in a cooking show?)
• An omission can speak volumes. Look for what's missing.
• Who, What, When, Where, How, and Why. Why usually leads to opinions and speculation.
