Check Yourself with Lateral Reading: Crash Course Navigating Digital Information #3

A website written specifically about comics for and by women might

cover the new Captain Marvel movie differently than a site will all male readers would.

Knowing where a source came from helps

determine if it is reliable.

It is important to note that many online news organizations have their own point of view sometimes these are

explicit liberal or conservative political leanings. But sometimes they are much harder to pinpoint, like a mashup of their contributors' own interests and perspectives.

infallible

free from error; absolutely dependable

Depending on what "seems true" while reading vertically

gives misinformation and disinformation more power. It allows people to hijack your consciousness, and it also makes you part of the problem.

controversial

giving rise or likely to give rise to public disagreement

If the site is untrustworthy, then what the site says about itself

is most likely untrustworthy

Sometimes what looks like a grassroots community effort

is really a large corporation trying to manipulate your opinions.

Even if the site is generally trustworthy, it is inclined to

paint the most favorable picture of its expertise and credibility possible.

Information is made by

people. Flawed, biased, imperfect people

catfishing

pretending to be someone else online

cite sources

to cite where your information comes from.

NPR fact check

trusted fact checking site hosted by National Public Radio

Wa-Po Fact Check

trusted fact checking site hosted by the Washington Post

What makes the average person think a website is legitimate?

well designed logo, references and citations, professional photography, no grammatical errors or typos

twitter bots

A software program that sends out automated posts on twitter.

vertical reading

Starting at the top of the page, look at the title and scroll down from there

Who is the magic arbiter of truth?

There isn't one.

Wikipedia

User-created and edited online encyclopedia

lateral reading

When on a new website instead of stay put and taking their word for it opening a new tab and start looking for more information. Instead of reading top to bottom, read from tab to tab.

motive

a driving force that causes a person to take action to satisfy specific needs

FactCheck.org

a nonpartisan, nonprofit, "consumer advocate" for voters that aims to reduce the level of deception and confusion in U.S. politics

"the media" is

a very large and diverse industry made up of individuals with vastly different viewpoints.

Concluding that because no source is inherently objective, all information is equally unreliable

and that is dead wrong.

While journalists should seek to inform, journalists are human,

and they make choices both about what to cover and how to cover it, choices we may not agree with.