University of Kwazulu-Natal

Lateral Reading The Best Media Literacy Tip To Vet Credible Sources

Bonisiwe Shabane
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lateral reading the best media literacy tip to vet credible sources

About 2.5 quintillion bytes of new data are created every day, according to IBM. Scientist David Helfand says that is equal to 5 trillion books, enough to stretch around the equator on a bookshelf over 1,600 feet high. In other words, the internet is constantly updated with new articles, videos, photos, posts — and even websites — every day. In the age of so much information, it’s getting harder and harder to distinguish between good and bad sources. So, if you want to evaluate a site’s reliability, how should you do it? Most people determine the credibility of a website by reading vertically, staying inside the website to decide if it’s reliable.

We have always been taught to read this way— from the top to the bottom. “When trying to determine who is behind online information, people … make judgments based on features internal to a website like its URL, design, functionality or content. However, these features are not effective ways to evaluate a site and need to be explicitly challenged,” researchers at Stanford History Education Group explain. After studying professional fact-checkers, the Stanford History Education Group found that another approach is far more effective for assessing sites: lateral reading. Today’s accelerating technology means that there’s an accelerated spread of disinformation that reaches a much wider audience — including your students. It’s vital to equip them with media literacy skills and tools to critically evaluate content.

One of the most effective strategies for fact-checking sources and combating disinformation is lateral reading. In this article, we’ll explore engaging activities that help students develop this skill, including how to incorporate Kialo discussions to enhance their critical thinking and verification techniques. Rather than engaging in a deep, vertical read of a single source, lateral reading means that students quickly scan the content of a source, and then begin searching for additional materials to verify the... This contrasts with the vertical reading strategies associated with traditional print reading methods. Lateral reading is particularly suited to digital sources, which often combine different media formats, making traditional vertical methods less effective. Moreover, the lack of editorial control in online content necessitates the rigorous evaluation process that lateral reading provides.

Lateral reading can prove more efficient than traditional verification methods. 1 Rather than spending time on in-depth vertical reading of potentially unreliable articles, students can use lateral reading to quickly grasp the topic and identify the most relevant and credible information from a range... Are you teaching the most effective strategies to assess the credibility of digital content? Sarah McGrew, a leading expert in civics and digital literacy at the University of Maryland College of Education, hopes that many educators are answering 'yes' to this question. In a digital landscape that is vastly more complex and all-consuming than the one many of today’s educators grew up in, digital media literacy – the ability to assess the credibility of information online... Recent studies show that students across all ages, from middle school to college, struggle to evaluate the credibility of online information (McGrew et al., 2018; Breakstone et al., 2021).

In fact, as many as 55% of children under the age of 14 stated that they do not feel comfortable in their ability to recognize false information online. We sat down with McGrew, who shared one essential strategy that educators should have in their digital literacy toolbox: lateral reading. This involves assessing the credibility of information by leaving the original source to seek outside perspectives about the author of the original source. At a time when concerns about the proliferation of misinformation are top-of-mind for educators nationwide, McGrew shares four steps for practicing lateral reading. One of the best ways to teach lateral reading is to model it, and these steps can be taken by both teachers and students. Step 1: Notice your emotional response to information.

McGrew explains that the first step to lateral reading is recognizing when it’s necessary. When you encounter an unfamiliar source or see a claim that evokes an emotional response, McGrew says to take note of this reaction. For example, reading a post on X or Meta that claims “non-citizens are voting in the election” may evoke feelings of anger or anxiousness. When teachers notice emotions such as these in themselves or in their students, it can be tempting to react quickly. Instead, McGrew says this is an indication that they should take time to investigate the credibility of the source. Questions such as, “How did that make you feel?” or “What did that make you think?” create space for students and teachers to acknowledge their emotional response and to take time to assess the...

The term Lateral Reading was coined by Sam Wineburg and Sarah McGrew in their 2019 study, "Lateral Reading and the Nature of Expertise", on internet source evaluation techniques. The strategy of Lateral Reading employed by expert fact checkers involves opening a new browser tab to evaluate a source based on information from other trusted sources, rather than evaluating the source itself for... Lateral reading is similar to Triangulation but focuses more on evaluating the source of the information rather than the information itself. Search for information about the company or website. Tip: To exclude results from the website itself, use the -site operator. For example "News Target" -site:https://newstarget.com

Wikipedia and established news outlets such as New York Times and Wall Street Journal have standards for reliability and fact checking. Other source evaluation techniques suggest visiting a website's "About" page. This page is usually written to favorably represent the what the purpose of the website. You can use a domain lookup tool like ICANN Lookup to find out who a website is registered to. Use fact checking sites such as Snopes or others listed on this guide to fact check. If claims are proceeded by "research indicates", search for research articles on Articles+ or Google Scholar.

800 University Way Spartanburg, SC 29303 864-503-5620 | 864-503-5611 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. 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. Lateral reading is searching for information about a source while reading it.

The concept originated out of research from the Stanford History Education Group (SHEG) under Sam Wineburg, the founder and executive director and is used by professional fact checkers. This video from the Stanford History Education Group explains it well. The short video from the Stanford History Education Group illustrates the importance of click restraint and why you shouldn’t assume that the first search results are necessarily the most reliable or relevant ones. Use the criteria below to help you evaluate a source. Keep in mind: © 2023 University of St.

Thomas, Minnesota In this short video from Crash Course: Navigating Digital Information, John Green teaches you how to employ lateral reading in evaluating your information. Lateral reading means: “instead of digging deep into the site at hand...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... they get off the page...they open up many tabs in their browser. From Caulfield, M. A.

(2017). Web Literacy for Student Fact-Checkers. https://collection.bccampus.ca/textbooks/web-literacy-for-student-fact-checkers-361/ GO WIDE: Lateral reading is a strategy for investigating who's behind an unfamiliar online source by leaving the webpage and opening a new browser tab to see what trusted websites say about the unknown... It helps you determine an author’s credibility, intent and biases by searching for articles on the same topic by other writers (to see how they are covering it) and for other articles by the... It's one of the primary strategies employed by professional fact checkers.

The lateral reading concept and the term itself developed from research conducted by the Stanford History Education Group (SHEG), led by Sam Wineburg, founder and executive director of SHEG. When evaluating web sources, "lateral reading" ("lateral" meaning "side-to-side") refers to the practice of seeing what other sources have to say about the source in question, rather than seeing what it says about itself,... by reading the "About" page of a website). Often a simple Google search is enough to establish whether a site or organization has a reputation for sharing unreliable or heavily biased information. Read more about lateral reading here: https://webliteracy.pressbooks.com/chapter/what-reading-laterally-means Note: lateral reading can be applied to scholarly sources as well!

Remember that "peer-reviewed" does not always mean "reliable information." It usually does, but sometimes peer-reviewed articles are later retracted for inaccuracies. Lateral reading activity: https://webliteracy.pressbooks.com/chapter/activity-evaluate-a-site/ Source: Lateral Reading / SIFT Method - Evaluating Sources - LibGuides at Wittenberg University

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