Before using popular news sources, make sure that your assignment does not restrict you to scholarly, peer-reviewed sources.
Although journalists might be considered experts in their field, there are two main factors why popular news sources are not considered scholarly.
First, almost all news sources have a political agenda. This is because they are owned by private individuals with their own beliefs who generally surround themselves with like-minded people. Therefore, when researching a topic, you need to determine whether a news source is biased in its reporting and in what way. A biased news source is likely to avoid ideas opposing its beliefs.
Secondly, the urgency to publish an article on a current event may cause the publisher to print an article before it has been completely fact-checked. Therefore, you need to evaluate your article for accuracy by checking it against other sources. You may save some time by determining whether a news source has a reputation for lack of accuracy in its reporting.
Thankfully, there are many resources that have done this work for you. The following websites evaluate the bias and accuracy of popular news sources. Of course, you should also check them against each other to get the biggest picture.
