When evaluating information, it's important to think about bias. There is bias in reporting, but we also all have our own personal cognitive biases. The personal bias most likely to impact our evaluation of information is conformation bias. We are also living in a world of filter bubbles which bias the information we see.
When reporting, some media outlets skew more to one side of the political spectrum than the other. Check out the media bias chart linked below. Look at the dates as the chart is updates frequently. Click on any chart to open it and enlarge it. You will notice that a news source's print or web presence may be less biased than its television presence.
AllSides also describes the different types of media bias and how to spot them.
Everything you do online is impacted by, and also impacts, algorithms. These algorithms are programs running in the background of web browsers, social media sites, shopping sites, etc. that track the items you click on and view and use that information to try to predict what you want to see in the future. That means that no two people will end up with the same set of search results. While this is convenient, it also means that important information that challenges your beliefs or informs you about things happening in the world that don't align with your "likes" gets filtered out, and you never know it. Eli Pariser calls this world where information is tailored to your likes and dislikes a "filter bubble," and it makes you vulnerable to false information.
You can use the same steps mentioned in the 5 Ways to Beat Confirmation Bias video provided on this guide to help you escape your filter bubble. Also, check out Pamela Pavliscak's How to Pop Your Filter Bubble post.
If you want to learn more about filter bubbles and how much they impact your search results, watch Eli Pariser's TED Talk below.
Confirmation bias is our natural tendency to believe information that aligns with our current ideas and beliefs. We are more willing to trust that than we are to trust information that challenges our beliefs; in fact, we may be more critical of information that challenges our beliefs. Confirmation bias means it is easy to be swayed by false information. Check out the videos below to learn more about confirmation bias and how to overcome it.
