Breaking News

A robbery occurs at a local business. The following pieces of information are reported immediately. Which of these should you verify before sharing?

• A post on Twitter with an eyewitness account of a possible getaway car.

• A news story stating the amount of money the thief may have taken.

• Pictures of a person whom some believe may be the thief.

• All of the above.

Aisha gets an alert on her phone about a post on a social media site she follows. The alert says school will likely be closed for the next few days due to a predicted storm. Which of the following should Aisha do first?

• Share the story with her friends.

• Verify it with a local news outlet.

• Verify it by reading comments on the original post.

Which of the following are good practices when consuming news?

• Slow down and think about a story before taking any action.

• Think about whether a story is written to get a reaction from you, or to inform you.

• Check to see whether a story can be verified with other reputable sources before sharing.

• All of the above.

Read each statement. Place a check in the box next to any statement that shows good news-literacy skills.

• Trust that people who witness something first-hand and post to social media are the most accurate.

• Assume all information reported by news outlets is true and complete.

• Use fact-checking websites to see whether a story has been proven untrue.

• Dig deeper into a source to learn who wrote it.

Why do you think it's important to get the full story before reacting to or sharing breaking news?

• Not having the full story causes people to make choices based on incorrect or incomplete information.

• Not having the full story creates unnecessary arguments or divides people over issues.

• Not having the full story blurs the lines of truth and falsehood.

• All of the above.

Why might news outlets want to be first to report something? Check all that apply.

• To gain more viewers/readers

• To win the annual Breaking News! award

• Become more famous/well-known

• To get higher ratings/more advertisers to make more money