Week 4: Review - Online Verification Skills

As part of the reading, you watched four Online Verification videos. I've included some additional steps you can use alongside SIFT/Lateral Reading.

Understanding how to find and use reliable information helps us make decisions that affect our lives
Websites can have some helpful information about their purpose and what they want to do (intent)
The Stanford History Education group conducted an experiment
that asked students, historians, and fact checkers to verify websites and their credibility in the same amount of time. Students and historians could not verify which was credible in the time given. To verify credibility on the web, you need specific skills which you will learn in this tutorial!

Leave the information site and search online about the organization or author producing the information (You can use Google (Links to an external site.) or Wikipedia for this). This is the start of lateral reading!
Do not trust ONLY what the organization says about itself in the About section of the website
In Wikipedia, look up organizations, authors, and publications and check the sources at the bottom of the Wikipedia page

If another article or source is being quoted or talked about in your information, click the link or find the original source using Google Links to an external site.
Look at the original source and verify its credibility using Wikipedia. Most importantly, verify that they FACT CHECK THEIR SOURCES and that they are a TRUSTWORTHY original reporting source.

Watch this short video (length: 4:10) on starting your own library of trusted sources.

Look at evidence and sources linked to the information. Traditional news outlets must verify sources and fact check as a part of their work
Use fact checking sites like Snopes Links to an external site., Politifact Links to an external site., and FactCheck.org Links to an external site.for major stories. Check the bias of online sources using AllSides. Links to an external site. Bias is a specific opinion, perspective, or prejudice that shapes the audience's interpretation toward a particular outlook
"Trade Up" for a higher quality source if you have doubts about the information you found. Trace the story to the original source and look for other trusted sources to verify it