A fact is something that can be proven, such as the total dollar amount of the national debt. An opinion is someone’s personal belief about an issue, such as the idea that the national debt is too high. Opinions are sometimes based on facts, but not always. Writers and speakers may deliberately mislead an audience by suggesting that opinions are fact-based when they are not. However, some kinds of writing are difficult to sort out simply because they contain a mixture of facts and opinions, not necessarily because of any deliberate efforts to deceive. Most political articles, for instance, include both facts and interpretations of fact. If a reader cannot distinguish between the two, he or she can walk away with some very wrong ideas about an issue.
When trying to decide if an article is mostly fact or mostly opinion, first consider the source of the article. Are the “facts” in your article accompanied by citations indicating where the facts were found? If so, read through some of the citations to verify that they are reliable sources of information themselves. If some are not, you should consider the possibility that the article might be mostly someone's opinion. Try using a search engine to verify some of the statements. Do you get consistent answers that agree with the statements in the article, or are the answers diverse, depending on the author? If you come across widely divergent ideas about the topic, it could mean that there are few solid facts available.
As you have probably noticed already, much of the information you find online is a mixture of fact and opinion. Naturally, you'll do your best to find the facts and base your own opinion on those, but how should you approach other people’s opinions--that is, when you know they're opinions rather than facts? Study the tabs below for an introduction to strategies for understanding other people’s arguments.
Frame of Reference
Evidence and Sources
Identifying Bias
A frame of reference is essentially the lens through which someone views the world. It includes the beliefs, values, morals, knowledge, and experiences that shape that person's perspective. Each person's unique frame of reference is dependent to some degree on the life he or she has lived. Your frame of reference influences how you feel about the world around you, how you react to situations, and how you interpret data. For this reason, two people with different frames of reference might interpret the same data in drastically different ways. Understanding frame of reference can help you understand other citizens' opinions and how they interpret facts.
Credible sources are sources that you can trust because the author is an established authority on the subject or because the claims he or she makes are backed up by solid evidence. When doing research, gathering background information, writing your own papers, or crafting an argument, you should only use credible sources. Otherwise, when you decide to share your opinions with others, they might not take you very seriously.
Generally, some sources are assumed to be credible--these include academic journals, textbooks, and websites maintained by recognized authorities, such as educational institutions or the government. Some examples of noncredible sources include blogs, articles without citations, websites with no recognized author, and books written by someone who is not an authority on the issue. Material that is too old to be relevant or to include the latest scientific data is also considered less credible.
Bias is a preference or prejudice for or against an idea. Almost all information that we encounter during a typical day is subject to some bias, including our own interpretations of events. People develop biases based on their experiences, especially important or early experiences. It is important that you be able to recognize bias in other people’s opinions, but you also must learn to recognize your own biases and how they impact your opinions.
In the world of contemporary news reporting, bias sells. Most major news publishers are known to have a political bias either toward the left or the right. The authors and commentators that work for these organizations have made careers of "spinning" the details of stories to show them in a positive or negative light. For this reason, the same event may seem like a good thing in one story and a bad thing in another, depending on which political party is pushing the story and what news agency is reporting it. Be sure to research the biases of not only individual authors, but of the companies they work for.
Question
Can biased sources still be useful?
