This class will focus on the tools and strategies necessary to evaluate sources, in a completely non-partisan fashion.  While we will be focusing on news media and social media stories and posts, many of these academic tools will translate into the evaluation of academic sources, such as those underlying textbooks on history.  With each topic, we will begin with a discussion of the relevant material and terminology, before the students have a chance to find and evaluate media items that they will share in the following session.

Our schedule will be as follows:

Week 1:  Overview of Basic Concepts.
•	Claim:  What is the main point of the news story or social media post?  Very often, it is difficult to pin down the actual claim because the author(s) obscure it by focusing on grandiose statements about intent or causation.  We will examine the use of headlines and thumbnails to skew the audience's expectations of the information they will see.
•	Type of Conclusions:  Does the story deliver fact, opinion, or reasoned judgment?  One of the main goals of this class is to recognize that we default to an assumption that every news story is a statement of fact, where many are opinion pieces or the reasoned judgment of experts.  There is nothing wrong with the latter two options, as long as the reader/viewer understands the nature of the information.
•	Narrative:  There is a story being told in each media piece, but just as in the study of History, any story can be told from different angles, so we will examine the ways we can determine through whose lens a story is being presented.  This will also allow us to determine if there is a target audience for the story.
•	Sources:  What types of evidence are being used to support the media story or post?  We will differentiate between primary and secondary documentary sources, as well as the differences between interviews of those taking part in reported actions, witnesses, and those who are merely sharing opinions.
Students will then be asked to choose one online story from any news media source and one post from any social media platform that discuss a topic that regularly causes disagreement (i.e. anything related to politics, the economy, and certain medical stories).  They will be instructed to look at the four main areas of discussion from the first week and evaluate the two items accordingly.

Week 2:  The Nature of Information:  We will begin by discussing the media items that the students found and evaluated prior to the second meeting.  We will examine the ways in which a particular piece may have moved from a fact-based story to an opinion piece, or the ways in which sources are mischaracterized.
We will then move into a discussion of Misinformation and Disinformation, with a secondary focus on evaluating the intent or lack thereof behind each.
I will provide students with a series of fabricated (by me) news stories which contain misinformation, disinformation, or both to evaluate prior to the third session.

Week 3:  Intent to Deceive:  We will begin with a discussion of the "mock" news stories I provided in week 2.  The students will be encourage to share the clues that they found that suggest that the stories were inaccurate and fit into the Misinformation or Disinformation column (or both). 
We will then discuss the following topics:
•	Intent:  We can say that the intent of an ethical journalist is to provide news based on facts.  Some would argue that the journalist always carries his or her own preferences and biases into the writing of their stories, but here, we are more interested in the intent to deceive the audience.  Something I always tell students is that if a news source always leaves you angry, then you are not reading news.
•	Conspiracy:  Conspiracy theories can be the basis of great action movies about lost treasures hidden under our cities, but when they appear in news or social media stories, they have a less desirable effect.  
•	Satire and Social Commentary:  Satire has long been a powerful tool in the hands of journalists, but it almost always shows a bias.  While we may laugh at a political cartoon or satirical written story, we need to know how to determine and evaluate the information on which the satire is based.
Students will then be instructed to find news and social media stories that fit in with this week's discussion.

Week 4:  We will start with a discussion of the articles/stories chosen by the students prior to our meeting.  As we discuss conspiracy and satire, we may see that there are different ways to look for the sources of each.
We will then move into a discussion of Propaganda and the role of State Media or Quasi-state Media sources in the sharing of information.  We will also discuss the limits on media freedom that exist in certain countries and the ways in which that should affect our critique of the accuracy of news stories coming from such sources. 
Prior to the following week, the students will be asked to find social media posts that blur the lines between one person's opinion and propaganda based on the use of official-looking graphics or logos.

Week 5:  We will begin with a discussion of the items each student found prior to our meeting.  We will then move into a discussion of targeted news delivery.  Are we provided with news stories based on algorithms linked to our online activities?  
If we are getting news and posts which line up with our activities, then are we at risk of using Confirmation Bias in evaluating the information we see?  
At the end of this session, students will be given an assignment that works best if they cannot affect it prior to our meeting, so the details will be provided during class.

Week 6:  Putting it Together and Moving Laterally.  We will begin by looking at the main page of several online news media sites (CNN, Fox, MSNBC) and simply examine the titles of the stories for words that may elicit emotions or expectations about the story's findings.  We will then examine the type of story, the nature of the sources and/or interviewees, and other topics as relevant.  This discussion will not be aimed at disparaging one news source while uplifting another.  Rather, it will be focused on a simple critical analysis of information with specific stories, without any assumptions about related content.
We will then discuss lateral movement off of the website we are on, meaning that we can leave our story or post and move to a different site to begin checking on the accuracy of the information.  Do we simply go to a site with an obviously different bias?  Do we try to find a perfectly neutral site?  Can we examine the story's sources and do a little digging on our own?  We will discuss the options for lateral examinations of news stories.
Students will be asked to to repeat this activity on their own sometime between two and five days after our session, so that there is a higher likelihood of different story topics.

Weeks 7 and 8:  In the final two weeks of the course, we will examine a combination of stories I provide, stories I fabricate (hopefully with increasingly difficult to detect problems), and those brought in by students.  
These sessions will be discussion-heavy with students sharing their thoughts on the various characteristics and details we covered in our first six sessions.  By the end of these sessions, students should be able to thoroughly evaluate media sources.