The Basics of Verifying Information
The Basics of Verifying Information - Introduction
Canadians consider online misinformation one of the most serious threats facing the country, on a par with climate change and ahead of issues such as infectious disease, concerns about the global economy and cybersecurity.
Information Sorting
One of the reasons why teens turn to shortcuts, such as judging a claim based on the reliability or apparent authenticity of the person making it, or turning to peers and influencers over trusted expert sources, is that they simply encounter too much information to deal with. To overcome this, we need to learn information sorting: how to quickly tell whether or not a source is even worth our attention before considering it.
Searching and Finding
The strength and weakness of the internet as a research source is just how much information there is: a badly-phrased search can drown you in irrelevant, misleading or unreliable results. This is why some research has shown that companion reading can actually backfire if people don’t have effective search skills..
Companion reading
Once you’ve found information online – or someone has shared it with you – how do you know if it’s true, or at least credible? In other words, how do you verify the information? The internet is a unique medium in that it allows anyone – not just experts – to write on any topic and to broadcast it to a wide audience.
Close Reading
If you’ve found that the source is reliable enough to be worth your attention, you can now read it more critically.