Lesson Objective
Participants will be able to identify and evaluate the credibility of digital sources (including verifying sources, identifying bias, misinformation, manipulated media and evaluating searches).
Participants will be able to identify and evaluate the credibility of digital sources (including verifying sources, identifying bias, misinformation, manipulated media and evaluating searches).
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In our digital world, users have near-instant access to information, news and resources to learn more about almost anything. Having this level of access to information is a great benefit, but it can also be confusing and overwhelming. Before acting on information or sharing with others, you should make sure that you know it is credible and accurate information.
A credible source of information is one that provides accurate information based on sound evidence. Credible sources typically have professional expertise or credentials in a relevant subject area. Credibility is not always clear-cut, and sources often have strengths and weaknesses. This is why it’s helpful to learn different strategies for evaluating information, particularly online information found through social media and web searches. Digital media literacy skills and techniques can help you know how to critically evaluate information and sources for potential bias or misinformation.
People turn to a variety of search engines and social media platforms to find information on the internet. These each use an algorithm—a set of computer-programmed instructions to complete a task—to return unique results based on a combination of factors such as your geographic location, other searches on similar topics, your own past searches and the level of detail in your search query.
It’s important to note that even the top results in a web search should be assessed for credibility.
For example, some top search results are listings paid for by companies or other organizations to promote their products or services. These can be identified by words such as ‘Ad’ or ‘Sponsored Results’ and normally appear at the top of the page.
Even if a piece of content looks and sounds legitimate, that doesn’t necessarily mean it is credible or accurate. Sometimes, information sources are trying to spread disinformation or misinformation, which you will learn about later in this lesson. When in doubt, look for other sources to corroborate the claim before sharing it out.
The amount of information online is virtually limitless. To avoid being overwhelmed when evaluating sources, use the simple strategy SIFT, which is an acronym created by Michael Caufield, a digital literacy expert at Washington State University Vancouver.
The acronym SIFT stands for:
STOP
INVESTIGATE THE SOURCE
FIND BETTER COVERAGE
TRACE CLAIMS, QUOTES and MEDIA BACK TO THE ORIGINAL SOURCE
The 8 Trust indicators include;
If you are evaluating visual information, consider these five pillars of visual verification from First Draft:
Visual information could include charts and graphs, memes, photographs, video or any information presented in a visual way.
There are varying degrees of deception within manipulated images and videos:
How can you tell if you are viewing a deepfake?
Look closely for visual inconsistencies:
Misinformation is content that is false or misleading.
Disinformation is false or misleading information created or shared with malicious intent to cause harm, manipulate or mislead an individual, group or organization.
Types of deceptive information
First Draft is an organization with a mission “to empower society with the knowledge, understanding and tools needed to outsmart false and misleading information.” They identify seven common types of deceptive online information from misinformation to disinformation:
1.Satire : Satire is using a comedic point of view to comment on current events, human nature or other social topics. Satire can be a healthy part of communication, but out of context, it can be used to mislead.
2.False connection : Also known as clickbait, this type of deceptive information uses sensational images or language to entice individuals to click on an article, but they do not match the content.
3.Misleading content : Content that is true but used in a misleading way.
4.Imposter content : False or misleading content that is designed to look as if it is from a reputable organization or source, but is actually not.
5.False context : True content that is shared with false contextual information.
6.Manipulated content : True content, including imagery, that is altered to be misleading.
7.Fabricated content : Content that is 100% fake or false.
Online advertising uses a variety of strategies to get people to click on advertisements or engage with products and services. Some of these strategies include clickbait headlines, endorsements, sponsored posts and targeted advertising. You can take control of the ads you see by adjusting your ad preferences.
Clickbait uses formatting and either sensationalized or emotive headlines and images to draw your attention and entice you to click on an article.
How can you tell if something is clickbait?
Here are some clues:
Most advertisements are easy to recognize, but sometimes advertisers use endorsements and sponsored content to make an advertisement blend in with journalistic content. Endorsements are when companies pay people to advertise their products on their own social media profiles through sponsored posts.
Sponsored content is an advertisement that is made to look like an impartial information source or news article. Online news sites publish sponsored content, and it is also present on social media and on your favorite influencers’ accounts.
You can identify endorsements and sponsored content using these strategies:
Students will learn how to keep their online information more secure by using and maintaining strong passwords. Students will learn about the principles of strong password design and the potential problems of password sharing.
View PageStudents will learn about malicious online users who might attempt to use security weaknesses to gather information about them.
View PageStudents will learn what information verification is and why it is important for news consumers to verify the stories they read or view.
View PageStudents will learn about a five-step checklist they can use to verify the origin, source, date, location, and motivation of a news image or video.
View PageStudents will define what a scrape (a copy from an original) is and explain why this can make the verification process more difficult.
View PageStudents will learn how to keep their online information more secure by using and maintaining strong passwords. Students will learn about the principles of strong password design and the potential problems of password sharing.
View PageStudents will learn about malicious online users who might attempt to use security weaknesses to gather information about them.
View PageStudents will learn what information verification is and why it is important for news consumers to verify the stories they read or view.
View PageStudents will learn about a five-step checklist they can use to verify the origin, source, date, location, and motivation of a news image or video.
View PageStudents will define what a scrape (a copy from an original) is and explain why this can make the verification process more difficult.
View Page