Reading the news
You read news every day — but what are you actually looking at?
You read the news most days. But what are you actually looking at?
A page can hold many different things. Some report what happened.
Some share what a writer thinks instead.
Most people feel sure they can tell these apart. Let's test that feeling.
In a 2018 study, people were asked if it was easy to spot news from opinion. How many said yes?
Two words come up a lot when people talk about the news.
Neither of those is a news report. But they sit on the same pages.
That is why even a careful reader can mix them up.
If it is printed in the news, it must be the paper's reporting.Tap to reveal
Hard to spot because reports, op-eds, and editorials share the same paper and the same look. But only one of them is reporting.
This module is not about lies or fake stories. That is a separate skill.
It is about how real, honest news gets made. The parts, and the job each one does.
So one question comes before the headlines and the photos. What kind of thing am I reading?