We live in a continuous news culture where the average consumer must learn how to deal with information overload. We have plenty of information, but not all of it contributes to a healthy, balanced news diet. In addition to snacking on morning news and grabbing afternoon sound bites, there’s misinformation and fake news, packaged and sold in confusing ways. How can we get the news we need to become informed and engaged?

In this activity, students are tasked with (a) placing a range of media sources on a grid whose axes are reliability and type of sources, and (b) articulating their reasoning and evidence for situating the sources where they did. The list of sources given for this exercise should be varied and present multiple perspectives and information genres that are open for debate or are ambiguous. Students will marinate on the format, authority, and context in which sources are produced and disseminated. This is a highly versatile activity; most features can be modified for any palette or cooking time.