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SP211 Prof. Huggins: Evaluating Sources

This guide will help students find topics for their informative speech projects. Students will learn about keyword searching in databases. Students will learn how to evaluate sources, to credibility.

SIFT the approach to evaluating information

STOP: When you first hit a page or post and start to read it — STOP. Are you familiar with the source or the claim? Do you know if they are trustworthy? If you don’t know, take a few minutes to check for previous work. Don’t read or share media until you know what it is. 

 

 INVESTIGATE THE SOURCE: The idea here is that you want to know what you’re reading before you read it. Taking sixty seconds to figure out where media is from before reading will help you decide if it is worth your time, and if it is, help you to better understand its significance and trustworthiness. Go outside the source (read laterally) to see what other sources say about it (the organization or publisher of the website). Practice click restraint by closely reading snippets in the search results, and looking beyond the 1st page of results before clicking a link.

 

 

FIND TRUSTED COVERAGE: Sometimes you don’t care about the particular article or video that reaches you. You care about the claim the article is making. In this case, your best strategy may be to ignore the source that reached you, and look for trusted reporting or analysis on the claim. This can be described as “trading up” sources.

 

TRACE CLAIMS, QUOTES, AND MEDIA TO THE ORIGINAL CONTEXT: Much of what we find on the internet has been stripped of context. Find the original reporting source. Who said this? Where did it come from? If you can’t find the original reporting source you can’t trust that the information is accurate.

 

Language borrowed from Mike Caulfield, "Sift (The Four Moves)" blog post.

Image credits: Stop by AS Design from the Noun Project, Detective by Adrien Coquet from the Noun Project, and traceability by Timofey Rostilov from the Noun Project

More information

 

2.9 Evaluating Information Using SIFT

SIFT is an acronym developed by Mike Caulfield (2019) that describes four steps you can use to evaluate sources.

Here’s a short video series by Mike Caulfied that explores and demonstrates some of what we’ll cover in this section.

S: Stop

Before rushing in, stop and check these two things:

Check yourself

Recognize that you bring your own expectations to your research and that you might be limiting your scope based on what you think the research should show, not necessarily what the research actually shows. If a source confirms or denies what you believe already, you may have an emotional reaction. Use this reaction as a reminder to check yourself and make sure your emotions are not affecting the quality of your research or argument. Verifying the truth of a source you agree with or finding additional sources that present a different perspective (even though it may upset you) can strengthen your case.[1]

Check that you’re on task

Stop is also a reminder to stay on task. It is easy to get lost exploring interesting tangents while researching. If this happens, stop and remember your original goal. Think about your purpose and whether you need in depth research, information on current events, or other types of sources, and how those can meet your research needs.

I: Investigate the Source

Even if you like your source, do some more investigating. Ask yourself if you know what the source’s reputation is, both in general and regarding your area of research. A smart approach is to see what others have said about this publication or the author’s reputation using Wikipedia, Google, and other search tools. Here are some points to consider:

Reputation

What do other sources say about the reputation of the resource? The creators of a resource will often portray themselves as an authority on a topic, whether or not their work is well-respected by outside experts. For this reason, their own “about” page is not necessarily objective and shouldn’t be your only source of information about them.

Approach

How does the source approach this kind of topic? Are they reporting on research or sharing strong opinions? Investigate how or if they support the points they are making. Check that any citations within their writing actually support what they’re saying and haven’t been taken out of context.

Purpose

What is the main purpose of the resource? Purpose is the reason why something exists, such as to inform, convince, promote a particular viewpoint, entertain, or sell products. Think about what they’re trying to say or do, or what they’re trying to get you to say or do. Search beyond the resource to explore what others are saying about the website’s purpose. Similar to how you go beyond a source to learn about its reputation, don’t only stay within the website you’re exploring when you’re trying to figure out its purpose.

Authority

What are the author’s history and credentials? Knowing where and what they studied, where they work, and how long they’ve done research on a topic can help you evaluate whether they actually know what they’re talking about. It can also be valuable to know whether they have engaged in any ethical misconduct.

Domain

You might expect .edu websites to be more scholarly and objective since they are hosted by colleges and universities, but remember that personal home pages for students and staff hosted by campus servers also bear the .edu domain. Conversely, you may be aware that anyone can purchase a .com or .org domain; however, many scholarly journals are hosted on such websites. Domains can offer hints for where information came from, but the domain by itself does not give any assurance that the content is accurate, up-to-date, thorough, or unbiased.

Conflicts of Interest

How is the source or author funded? Check if any funding information or corporate ties to the project are listed, and consider whether those ties are likely to impact how the research is presented. This doesn’t invalidate their work, but you may need to consider possible bias or conflicts of interest.

These are only a few things to consider when investigating your source.

F: Find better coverage

Before using a source, or sharing the information it contains, check to see how the topic has been covered elsewhere. Who else has written about it? Do other sources provide better information? Better sources might contain information that is more detailed, varied, authoritative, or recent.

T: Trace it back

Trace claims, quotes, and media back to the original source. Before trusting or reusing information, make sure you understand the original context and have verified that it has been presented accurately. Some things to check include who first wrote about it and when, and where they got the information. At this point, you may need to circle back to steps I and F to evaluate any new information you’ve found.

Fact-checking sites

Reputable fact-checking sites are good resources for clearing up viral stories, myths, urban legends and fake news on many different topics. Here are a few examples

Wikipedia and Google – Use the tools that you already know. Google the source name and add “Wikipedia” to your search to learn more about its reputation, beyond what the resource provides to you

Media Bias/Fact Check – Calling itself “the most comprehensive media bias resource,” this site is a good tool for checking up on various newspapers and news organizations. It identifies sites by how far they move (left or right) from a “least biased” centrist position. They also identify questionable sources, conspiracy-pseudoscience, and satire sites.

Politifact – This helpful site focuses on U.S. politics, using their own “Truth-o-meter” scale to rate how true or false public statements by politicians are

Snopes.com – Since 1994, this site has been fact-checking the web’s urban legends, news stories, hoaxes, political claims, and more

 


  1. Building A Fact-Checking Habit By Checking Your Emotions: https://webliteracy.pressbooks.com/chapter/building-a-habit-by-checking-your-emotions/ 

LICENSE

 

LIB 160: Information Literacy Copyright © 2019 by Iowa State University Library Instruction Services. All Rights Reserved.

 

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