Mis/Disinformation, Fact-Checking, Lateral Reading and Media Literacy Guide

Lateral reading is:

• a powerful digital literacy strategy used by fact-checkers to combat fake news.
• a process of judging the credibility of information by verifying if the same information has been reported by credible sources.
• a practice of keeping multiple tabs open, thus reading laterally or across websites and news sources to check the veracity of facts and information.

Lateral readers don’t spend time on the page or site until they’ve first gotten their bearings by looking at what other sites and resources say about the source they are looking at.

Lateral Reading Steps:

1. See what other authoritative sources have said about the site.

2. Open up many tabs in the browser, piecing together different bits of information from across the web to get a better picture of the site you are investigating.

3. Evaluate the information in other pages that offer information about the source under investigation. The truth is more likely to be found in the network of links (and commentaries) than in the site itself.

4. When you get your bearings from the rest of the network, re-engage with the original content.

5. Use your critical thinking and the information gathered from other websites about the original source to determine the accuracy of the information being presented. 

Lateral readers gain a better understanding of whether to trust the facts and analysis presented to them.

Source: https://pressbooks.pub/webliteracy/chapter/what-reading-laterally-means/

What people need most when confronted with a claim that may not be 100% true is things they can do to get closer to the truth. They need something I have decided to call “moves.”

The following four moves accomplish intermediate goals in the fact-checking process.  They are associated with specific tactics. Here are the four moves:

• Check for previous work: Look around to see if someone else has already fact-checked the claim or provided a synthesis of research.
• Go upstream to the source: Go “upstream” to the source of the claim. Most web content is not original. Get to the original source to understand the trustworthiness of the information.
• Read laterally: Read laterally Once you get to the source of a claim, read what other people say about the source (publication, author, etc.). The truth is in the network.
• Circle back: If you get lost, hit dead ends, or find yourself going down an increasingly confusing rabbit hole, back up and start over knowing what you know now. You’re likely to take a more informed path with different search terms and better decisions.

Source: https://pressbooks.pub/webliteracy/

INVESTIGATE THE SOURCE

FURTHER INVESTIGATE

FIND TRUSTED COVERAGE 

TRACE THE CLAIM

Source: https://guides.lib.uchicago.edu/c.php?g=1241077&p=9082322