LibGuides: Global Issues: Overview

A word from Calvin and Hobbes

by Bill Watterson, Homicidal Psycho Jungle Cat, p. 41.

A word of caution

You can always find a person with an opinion on something. It is easy to find someone to tell you what is going on and what to believe. But, to be an effective critical thinker you need to be able to gather data from a variety of sources, analyze the information about a topic, and decide for yourself what you believe. Your understanding about a topic is directly related to what you have read or heard about the topic and your own personal bias or world view. As you read, be aware of your own bias and the possible bias of the reporting agencies.

FactCheck.org
FactCheck.org is a project of the Annenberg Public Policy Center of the University of Pennsylvania. Their mandate is to fact check what is being said "major U.S. political players in the form of TV ads, debates, speeches, interviews and news releases."
Journalist's Resources
"Based at Harvard’s Shorenstein Center on Media, Politics and Public Policy, the Journalist’s Resource project examines news topics through a research lens. We surface scholarly materials that may be relevant to media practitioners, bloggers, educators, students and general readers. Our philosophy is that peer-reviewed research studies can, at the very least, help anchor journalists as they navigate difficult terrain and competing claims."
ProCon.org
"Our purpose is to provide resources for critical thinking and to educate without bias. We research issues that are controversial and important, and we present them in a balanced, comprehensive, straightforward, transparent, and primarily pro-con format at no charge"

Confirmation Bias

By BellarmineStudios (Bellarmine College Prep)

Citation Tools

NoodleTools
NoodleTools supports the research process with a platform of integrated tools for note-taking, outlining, citation, document archiving/annotation, and collaborative research and writing. You must create your own username and password using the school account. For school account information please see St. Paul's Community.