Triangulation

On Wednesday one of my students announced that a suspect had been arrested in the April 15 bombing. I quickly checked my news sources, rapidly cycling through CNN, ABC News, Washington Post, and New York Times, seeing the story only at the first of those. Sure enough, this ended up being the incorrect story that has led to some mocking of CNN in the past week.

It's part of my training as a historian to instinctively look at a few sources to corroborate a statement of fact. I wonder how normal that is for my students, burgeoning consumers of news. Their consumption comes in the form of updates on Apps and updates on what is now being called the fifth news network, Twitter. A challenge we have is teaching that generation how to instinctively double-check.

But I remain to be convinced that I live in exciting times. Kids are digesting a great deal of news, and are eager to discuss what they've found. We have a great opportunity here to capitalize on this trend.