The Hugh Owen Library's collections cover the humanities, business, law, social sciences, biological and earth sciences. Take a look at the selection of books listed below to support your news and media needs.
The Glossary of terms is a quick reference checklist to understand the terminology used within this guide.
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| Academic sources | A scholarly or academic source/publication contains articles written by experts in a particular topic area or field. |
| Accuracy | relates to the reliability, truthfulness and correctness of the resource. |
| Algorithm | A set of instructions or rules designed to perform a specific task. |
| Author / Authority | The writer of a book, article, news, story or document both in print or online. An author can also be called a creator, producer, or publisher. |
| Bias | Prejudice for or against something, a person, or group compared with another, usually in a way considered to be unfair. |
| Clickbait | Websites with catchy headlines or titles to attract attention and to encourage you to visit a particular web page. |
| Confirmation Bias | The tendency to interpret new evidence as confirmation of one's existing beliefs or theories. |
| CRAAP test |
Criteria to evaluate and fact check your sources. CRAAP is an acronym for each step of the process of evaluating a source.
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| Currency | Relates to the timeliness of the resources or refers to how recent the information is. |
| Disinformation | Fake, false, misleading or inaccurate information that is deliberately created and shared with the intention to mislead others. For example, for political or financial gain. |
| Evaluate / Fact-check | Determine the quality of the information provided. The most common evaluation criteria is the CRAAP test or asking yourself the 5W's. |
| Fact | Something that is known and can be proven to be true or false. A fact is something that has occurred or has been proven to be correct. |
| Fake News | Stories that are published that are not based on facts. News created to deliberately deceive its audience with false information. |
| Filter Bubble | A term coined by Internet activist Eli Pariser. A situation in which someone only sees news and information that conform to what they already believe and like. Internet algorithms choose what the user would like to see as a result of their past searches, clicks, etc. |
| Free Speech | Free speech or freedom of speech is the right to express any opinions without censorship or suppression. |
| Hoax | To trick or deceive. False information intentionally shared to deceive people and can be humorous or malicious. |
| Media | Media is the main means of mass communication using platforms such as broadcasting, publishing, and the internet. In its simplest form, media is a means of communication, as radio and television, newspapers, magazines, and the internet, that reach or influence people widely. |
| Media Bias | The bias or perceived bias of journalists, reporters and news producers within the mass media in the selection of events and stories that are reported and how they are covered. |
| Media Literacy | Media literacy is the ability to access, analyze, evaluate, create and act using all forms of communication. |
| Media Sources | In general, we can classify media in to three main categories: Print Media, Broadcasting Media and Internet Media. |
| Misinformation | False, misleading or inaccurate information that may not have been created deliberately to deceive or mislead others. The story may have been inadvertently created. |
| Non-academic sources | Non-academic sources are just that; not related to academic areas or fields of research. Reading articles from non-academic sources can help to introduce you to a topic and introduce you to how that topic is being discussed in society. |
| Objective | Not influenced by personal feelings or opinions in considering and representing facts. |
| Opinion | An expression or belief which may or may not be backed up by facts. But, it cannot be proven true or false. An opinion might also be correct but they can’t be proved. |
| Parody | Creative work aimed to copy or imitate the original source it is based on in an exaggerated way, usually to entertain. |
| Peer Review | the process of someone reading, checking, and giving his or her opinion about something that has been written by another expert |
| Prejudice | Preconceived opinion that is not based on reason or actual experience |
| Primary Source | Original materials on which other research is based. They are firsthand documents that provide direct evidence on your topic. |
| Propaganda | Bias or intentionally false information disseminated to influence public opinion for a political purpose. |
| Purpose | The reason the source was written. |
| Relevant/Relevance | Relates to the importance of the information to you and your information needs. |
| Reliable | A source you can trust. |
| Satirical News | News programs with comedic overtones that are intentionally funny. |
| Secondary sources | The interpretation, commentary or analysis of other sources. They are accounts written after the fact with the benefit of hindsight. Secondary sources are not evidence, but rather commentary on and discussion of evidence. |
| Scholarly | Written by an expert in a field for an audience of other experts in that field. |
| Subjective | Based on or influenced by personal feelings, tastes, or opinions. |
| Supporting Sources/ Corroborating Evidence | Sources that support something said in another source. |
| Tertiary sources | Tertiary sources are organisation, categorisation, index or collection of sources. A tertiary source presents summaries or condensed versions of materials, usually with references back to the primary and/or secondary sources. |
| 5 W 's |
Criteria to evaluate and fact check your sources. Ask yourself: WHO - WHAT - WHEN - WHERE - WHY |
