Be informed to be a good citizen!

Vanessa Otero, founder and CEO of Ad Fontes Media, will discuss media bias and how to evaluate news sources in order to stay informed. Ad Fontes is famous for its interactive Media Bias Chart, which evaluates an array of media sources (print, online, television, and podcasts) for their reliability and political bias.

This program is part of our civics series based on The Bill of Obligations: The Ten Habits of Good Citizens by Richard Haass, former diplomat and president emeritus of the nonpartisan Council on Foreign Relations. PBS produced a number of programs centered around this book that are well worth watching: 

A Citizen’s Guide to Preserving Democracy (52-minute program), 

Be a Good Citizen: Tips from Diplomat Richard Haass (a 6-minute summary video of the above program), 

Meet the teen fact checkers taking on online misinformation (this 5-minute video shows how some dedicated teens are helping to combat misinformation and show their peers how to use their media literacy skills), and  

Be Informed: How local news orgs are reaching skeptics (this 11-minute video looks at what news media can do to improve consumer trust). 

You can view additional clips from the entire series here.