University of Kwazulu-Natal

Media Literacy Activity Lateral Reading To Evaluate Sources

Bonisiwe Shabane
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media literacy activity lateral reading to evaluate sources

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... Have students work in groups to evaluate an article on a website. The idea is to choose something that is not immediately recognizable as a reputable source (e.g.

the New York Times or an academic journal in your field) or easily identifiable as a non-reputable source (e.g. Breitbart.com or a conspiracy theory blog). For example, you might choose a story from a “churnalism” website that repackages news story or academic articles relevant to your field (like this article from space.com) or an article from an unfamiliar news... Philosophy Now). Prompt students to look over the article and explore the features of the website to determine whether or not they believe the source is credible—can it be trusted or believed? In addition to determining whether or not the article is credible, have students write down what factors influenced their evaluation of the source.

What specific aspects of the article and/or website helped students determine its credibility? Have each group share their criteria for determining credibility and keep track of this criteria on the board to gather a list of credibility markers for the class. (Credibility markers might include the URL of the website [.com, .org], the author’s credentials, citations within the article, currency of the information, etc.) After this discussion, watch the Lateral Reading video and have students reflect on how the strategies in the video compare to their own evaluation strategies. Have students work in their groups once more to apply the lateral reading skills they learned in the video to the same article they previously evaluated. Prompt them to move outside of the website where the article is posted and use Google to find more information about the publication and the information presented in the article.

For example, students might find an article that corroborates the story or learn more about the reputation of the author or publication. Ask students to think about how/if lateral reading changed their perspective on the credibility of the source. Conclude the activity by asking students to discuss whether or not they would cite the source in a research paper or share it on social media. Use this as an opportunity to talk with students about the sliding scale of credibility and the context of information needs. For example, students might find that the information presented in an article on space.com is credible and appropriate to share with an audience on social media; however, they would probably need to locate 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. Evaluating where information comes from is a crucial part of deciding whether it is trustworthy.

By observing fact checkers, we found that the best way to learn about a website is lateral reading—leaving a site to see what other digital sources say about it. In this sequence of lessons, teachers model lateral reading and guide students through a series of structured activities to develop and improve their lateral reading skills. Students contrast lateral reading with vertical reading (staying on a single webpage), and learn how checking what other websites say about a source is a better evaluation strategy than trusting what the source says... These lessons also introduce students to resources they can use when laterally reading: Wikipedia, news stories, and fact-checking organizations’ websites. Access free COR materials by logging into your SHEG account or by creating a new account with DIG (if you don't have a SHEG account). Stay up to date with the latest from COR, delivered straight to your inbox.

Please consider supporting us through a tax-deductible donation. Want to practice or teach about lateral reading? Check out these resources. (These links are also available in the navigation menu.) For this assignment, students will use lateral reading strategies1 to evaluate the credibility of one or more information sources or, see the alternative option for evaluating academic journal articles. Learn more about the Information Literacy Core Concepts.

For a follow-up activity, students could be asked to use this experience to create class guidelines for evaluating sources. For subsequent assignments, they could be required to demonstrate that they applied the guidelines when selecting their sources. 1 Based on the Lateral Reading Teaching Activity on the Citizen Literacy website, created by Robert Detmering, Amber Willenborg, and Terri Holtze for University of Louisville Libraries and licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-Share... It often feels overwhelming and difficult to evaluate a source. There are many factors to consider, however, there are some highly effective strategies that help students and researchers navigate source evaluation. We will be using Double Entry Journal to learn the lateral reading digital literacy strategy.

Lateral reading refers to a strategy to evaluate a source by looking for information on the source from an outside perspective. When you look for evidence about a source outside of that source. It can help you see through misleading or false information. Students will be able to evaluate the authenticity, accuracy, appropriateness, and bias of an online source. Students will be able to textual evidence to draw a conclusion about authority. To complete the assignment: 1.

Watch the Lateral Reading Tutorial 2. Click the link in the blue box to take the quiz 3. Be sure to select the name of your instructor so that they can receive your results! Separate fact from fiction using a technique called lateral reading. When considering the credibility of a source, open a new tab and do a web search on the source and/or the organization that is providing it. There are sites that look professional but are actually promoting a certain agenda or viewpoint, and lateral reading helps you learn more.

View the tutorial and then follow the link below for a short quiz on your understanding of using lateral reading to evaluate information sources. https://www.democracynow.org/2025/2/5/headlines/trump_calls_for_ethnic_cleansing_of_entire_gaza_strip_and_for_us_to_take_over 2. Use Lateral Reading techniques to evaluate and fact-check this page. 3. What did you find out about the information shared on this page?

4. What is your opinion about the information shared and how it is shared? Is there a bias? Do you agree or disagree with the information? Our lives are flooded with information. Whether scrolling on our phones, browsing on a computer, or turning on the TV, we are surrounded by news.

But how do you know if it is accurate? You will need to perform what we refer to as Lateral Reading--comparing the information presented in your source to additional sources to see if the information is being reported with the same meaning. To start this process, you will need a top-down source assessment. How do you know if the resources, such as videos, magazine articles, memes, newspaper articles, news reports, podcasts, editorials, and more, are reliable and report accurate information? The first step is to examine the source by using the acronym CARE: Why should you care whether your news is real or fake?

Thanks to KT Lowe, Indiana University East Campus Library.

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