Background: The purpose of this assignment is to practice vetting claims about archaeology in popular media outlets and to differentiate information presented in popular versus scholarly
sources. You will pretend to be a science editor for a popular news magazine featuring a new
piece an archaeological discovery in your magazine. Although you want to impress your
readers, your magazine must maintain its reputation for publishing accurate, scientifically
supported claims.
For this assignment, you will locate an interesting story from a popular news source, locate the
original research study on which the article is based, and conduct a guided comparison of the
two to vet the scientific validity of the news reporting.
Browse the internet or library for an interesting report of an archaeological discovery in a
popular news outlet. You may use a story you’ve heard about previously or Google
“archaeological discovery” or “archaeology science news” for some ideas. Be sure to choose a
story that references an original research study. Look for a phrase such as “According to a
study…”.
A search for ‘archaeology news‘ or ‘archaeology science news‘ should bring up many options.
Websites such as LiveScience
(https://www.livescience.com/topics/archaeology) and ScienceDaily (https://www.sciencedaily.com/news/fossils_ruins/archaeology/) should have many good options.