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Prep School Library: 2024 Election Resources

This guide contains resources for PS students including database links, tutorials, book recommendations and more!

Register to Vote!

If you are an American citizen, you can vote once you're 18 years old. But you can pre-register when you're 16 or 17--do it early so you don't forget! There are several ways to register to vote, according to elections.ny.gov:

Register Online:

Click here to access the registration portal. To register online you will need to use a NY.Gov ID. If you have previously used a NY.Gov ID with another agency, you may use the same login to access the Online Voter Registration portal. If you have not used a NY.Gov ID you will need to create an account. 

By Mail:

Download the voter registration form here. Print it, fill it out and mail it to your County Board of Elections (a list of counties and addresses is included at the bottom of the form.) You will need to provide your own stamp!

In Person:

Note: You will be asked to verify your identity, using either your social security number, your driver's license number, or a photo ID or piece of mail that has your name and address on it. If you register by mail, be sure to include the number or other means of verification.

Organ Donation

When you register, you will be asked if you would like to be an organ donor. Don't worry, this is totally optional. If you're interested in learning more about organ donation, check out NY State's Donate Life Registry Page.

Is it Legit?

The News Literacy Project is a great source for those of you interested in learning more about assessing credibility and finding reliable news sources. They've come up with Is It Legit: 5 tips for vetting news sources. The tips are:

  1. Do a quick search: Conducting a simple search for information about a news source is a key first step in evaluating its credibility.
  2. Look for standards: Reputable news organizations aspire to ethical guidelines and standards, including fairness, accuracy and independence.
  3. Check for transparency: Quality news sources should be transparent, not only about their reporting practices (see above), but also about their ownership and funding.
  4. Examine how errors are handled: Credible news sources are accountable for mistakes and correct them. Do you see evidence that this source corrects or clarifies errors?
  5. Assess news coverage: An important step in vetting sources is taking time to read and assess several news articles

Check out this infographic for more information on these five steps to determining credibility.

Where are you getting your news?

According to the Pew Research Center, most people get their news via smartphone, either through apps, social media, podcasts or search engines. The internet allows us access to an incredible amount of reliable information--but it can be difficult to discern good information from mis- or disinformation.

If you are one of the many people who uses social media as a news source, remember to take everything with a grain of salt.Anyone can say pretty much whatever they'd like on social media, regardless of their credentials.  That means you must be willing to verify claims. Here is a good example of someone verifying information on TikTok--notice how he exits the app and uses Google and Wikipedia to verify that the information is true and trustworthy.

Learn More about the Election with these Reliable News Sources

Flipster Magazines

We have the following magazines available through Flipster--access them here, or download the Flipster app.  
Login info: 
Username: columbia 
Password: Lions#1!

 

National Review     The New Yorker       The Atlantic      The New Republic       The Week

Magazines on Sora

We have access to Sora Magazines through the Hudson Valley Library Association, new in 2024!

How to access: Head over to soraapp.com or download the app on your phone and tablet. Click the three lines icon () in the top right of the screen. Click and search for Hudson Valley Library Association. Now you'll be able to search through their collection of over 350 magazines, including these current event/political magazines:

 

The New Yorker      The Week               Newsweek            The Week Jr.         Time

News Media Bias

What is bias? 

In this context, it's news media that clearly favors one side of an issue over another. During an election year, that means news coverage can be biased for or against a political party. "Good" or "reliable" news reports, whether they are in print, video or audio formats, should be as free of bias as possible. But because news is made by people, there's no such thing as a perfectly unbiased news source. Here is the News Literacy Project with some tips on determining and engaging with bias:

  1. Differentiate news from opinion: News reports — also called “straight news” or “hard news” — should be as free of bias as possible. But remember that opinion columns, editorials and op-eds are not produced to be impartial. They’re supposed to express an opinion.
  2. Think about bias as a spectrum: It’s helpful to think about bias in news as a spectrum (more or less biased) rather than a binary (biased and unbiased).
  3. Ask yourself: Compared with what? When you encounter allegations of bias in news, keep these questions in mind: Biased compared with what? Can I point to an example of information that is fairer, more accurate and more impartial?
  4. Recognize your own biases: Our own preconceptions can cause us to misperceive elements of news coverage, make assumptions about the motivations of journalists, or diligently search for ways to dismiss coverage as “biased” if it challenges our beliefs.
  5. Be wary of media bias charts and rating: Bias charts and rating systems seem to provide an easy way to assess bias in news, but they often contain startling shortcomings.
  6. Think about bias in terms of types and forms: Break through the hyperbole and political rhetoric around the issue of bias by testing your initial perceptions. What type of bias do you think you’re seeing? And what form do you see it taking in coverage?

Source: News Literacy Project