FTT - Unbiased News Does Not Exist

Unbiased News Does Not Exist

 Allsides: Balanced News And Civil Discourse 

@LisaBerghoff/@MrKimDHS

When I was in school, I can remember certain classes had a standing current events assignment. We were instructed to find a news article and summarize it.  At times, those current events would be shared with the class. At the time, there was nothing controversial or problematic with this assignment.  The news came from the newspaper. Of course, we did not have social media or the ability to comment on everything that is put out into the world in a very public way. Today, the way we get our news is very different and we often seem to exist in a bit of an echo chamber with the way news feeds are filtered to give us more of what we already agree with. 

As educators, we all understand the importance of relevance and practical application in learning. The Universal Design For Learning framework explains that there are three main learning networks in the brain. The affective network deals with the "why" of learning. This is when I always think about that student who likes to say- when will I ever need to know this? The recognition network speaks to the "what" of learning, or how students take in and make meaning out of new information. Finally, the strategic network is around the "how" of learning. The strategic is all about how students show us what they know and understand. The Universal Design for Learning guidelines explain the importance in offering options for each of these networks. The recognition and strategic networks are often pretty easy to figure out in terms of providing choices for students. If a student is struggling with decoding, perhaps they can listen to an audio version of text. A student who has difficulty giving a live presentation could be prompted to record. The affective network is sometimes trickier and arguably the most important. It is that motivation and spark of interest that often propels students from just taking in information to actually shaping their understanding and making connections that will expand their learning in the future.

In my quest for searching for ways to help us all make real world connections, I was thrilled to find Allsides.com and Allsides For Schools. 

Allsides aims to provide diverse perspectives and a balanced take on news. They do not publish any news stories of their own. Allsides takes a look at what is out there from about 600 media outlets and creates a media bias rating on the news stories. News items are rated as being left, lean left, center, lean right, or right of the political spectrum. You have the ability to do a search by topic or do what they refer to as a balanced search, which will give you results that are rated. Take a look at their Media Bias Chart below. 

The site exposes people to information and ideas from all sides of the political spectrum so we can better understand the world.  It also includes a "Red Blue Dictionary" because sometimes when we disagree it's like we're not speaking the same language. this dictionary reveals how people across the political spectrum define, think and feel differently about the same term or issue. 

Watch the 90 second video below to learn more about how Allsides works.  

The Allsides For Schools sight provides tools, resources, information, and lesson plans with the goal of teaching students how to critically evaluate news, media content, as well as other information and to participate in thoughtful conversation. This is targeted for middle school, high school, and college classrooms. Allsides for schools is a joint nonprofit initiative of Allsides, Living Room Conversations, and the Mediators Foundation. This education site was created in 2019 when it became clear that teachers were using both Allsides and Living Room Conversation guides. 

Also on the site you will find Mismatch, which is an online conversation platform built to cultivate skills and offer practice in civil dialogue between middle school, high school, and college students in different parts of the United States. This is amazing because you sign up as a class, not as individuals, and you get to decide what conversation you are going to have. The whole point is to help get students out of their bubble and have meaningful conversations.  This site has so many fantastic features designed to get teachers and students out of their filter bubbles and looking at the news through critical thinking, not social media. There are multiple tools available or you can just use the Allsides website. 

Here is a short video demonstration explaining how Mismatch works.

There are many practical uses for this in the classroom, whether or not you are teaching current events. Think about how many times we want our students to research what is currently happening in our world.

I hope you will give Allsides a look. Let's keep conversations open and help teach our students how to do it in a positive way.