Media Smarts
The Media Awareness Network: Bias
Slant, or bias, can be found in virtually every news outlet. Use this online lesson plan to help students understand how word choices and other factors can intentionally or unintentionally affect the audience's understanding.
University of Michigan
News Bias Explored: The Art of Reading the News
Real-life examples, interactive headline and image games and brief explanations make this an attractive site for learning to recognize media bias.
Sophia Learning
Sophia: Politics and Media 3: Selling the Prez
Using electronic and print resources, this tutorial explores media bias and how political candidates are portrayed in the news. [2:42]
Annenberg Foundation
Annenberg Learner: Democracy in America: Understanding Media: The Inside Story
This unit highlights the integral role that the media plays in American politics to communicate between the leaders and the public. Offers video, readings, web resources, and activities.
Other
Rhetorica Network: Media / Political Bias
A detailed explanation of how bias works is offered at this site, including critical questions for detecting bias in writing.
NPR: National Public Radio
Npr: Can Health Care Be Cured of Racial Bias?
Article reports on the history and current status of racial bias in the health care industry. Includes an audio version of the story.
Other
How to Detect Media Bias & Propaganda [Pdf]
A portion of a larger book, this site is critical of journalism as it is presently practiced. This portion offers characteristics of critical news consumers.
PBS
Pbs News Hour: Current Events Lesson Plan
An interesting way for students to dissect current events in the classroom. This lesson plan has students look at bias and develop critical thinking skills in order to digest the news media.
PBS
Pbs Online News Hour: Mac Neil Lehrer Productions: Sampling Bias, Ca Recall
In this lesson plan, students are exposed to the different types of political samples, given lists of election data and asked to differentiate between the samples, and informed as to the sources of bias in samples. In addition to...
Johns Hopkins University
Johns Hopkins University Sheridan Libraries: Information and Its Counterfeits
Distinguishing information from propaganda, biased reporting and misinformation is an important skill. This short article defines each of these, and provides examples of each.
Digital History
Digital History: September 11, 2001
This site has a comprehensive overview of the September 11, 2001 attacks on the U.S., including information on Osama bin Laden's background, the formation of Al Qaeda, the attacks themselves, the US response, civil liberties and national...