Gauge New Source Quality Using Ad Fontes Media (AFM)

Background

News Literacy protects you from being deceived by bad information so you can maintain an Accurate View of Reality (AVR).

Success in News Literacy comes from understanding and applying a small set of causal drivers, revealed by this model:

(Standards → Coverage + Filter → Judge + Update) → AVR

This model shows that standards are the foundation of success. However, learning the standards and applying them well takes time and practice. This lesson provides a fast, reliable way to get started:

Use Ad Fontes Media (AFM) to quickly gauge how well a news source meets core standards.

Later lessons will explain the standards in detail and how AFM applies them.

Goals

1. Describe what Ad Fontes Media (AFM) is and what it measures.
2. Use AFM to rate a news source.
3. Reduce the risk of being deceived by low-quality or biased news sources.

Ad Fontes

Ad Fontes Media (AFM) is an organization that rates the quality of news sources and transparently gives you a score that allows you to easily determine

1. Is this news source safe (accurate and fair) and therefore nondeceptive?
2. Is this news source unsafe (accuracy and bias issues) therefore deceptive?
3. How accurate is the source? How fair is the source?

Why Use AFM?

1. Safe news (accurate and fair) gives you an accurate view of reality (AVR) with respect to the news. Unsafe news gives a distorted and deceptive view of reality

2. AFM does not require one to grok the standards that undergird safe (accurate and fair) news. This make it simple to use.

AFM: How To

Here are the ways to use AFM