HLS 280 Mis-, Dis-, and Malinformation Research Guide: SIFT & Lateral Reading

1. Here's a story from a news site called Natural News saying that nicotine can cure brain tumors: https://www.naturalnews.com/2023-06-20-ardis-nicotine-can-cure-tumors.html

Do you think Natural News is a reliable source of information? Why or why not? What lateral reading strategy did you use?

2. Here's a story from a site called AP News saying that a German ice cream shop has cricket-flavoured ice cream: https://apnews.com/article/germany-cricket-flavored-ice-cream-30ec8248ff14db3d842316e7b8e68bf7

Do you think AP News is a reliable source of information? Why or why not? What lateral reading strategy did you use?

3. Here's a piece from the Policy section of a British news magazine called The Spectator: https://thespectator.com/topic/wildfire-apocalypse-canada-climate-change/

Do you think the author has expertise in this area? Why or why not? What lateral reading strategy did you use? 

4. The following site reports on the results of a study connecting soda consumption by children with an increased likelihood of alcohol use: https://neurosciencenews.com/soda-alcohol-children-25174/

Can you track down the original source? How did you do it? 

Some exercises drawn from CTRL-F: https://ctrl-f.ca/en/resources/

Examples of Vertical Reading:

• Checking to see if the site "looks" professional (looking for typos, ads, etc.)
• Reading the 'About' page
• Checking if the URL is a .com or a .org (anyone can purchase a .org domain, see, for example martinlutherking.org)
• Reading a story closely to see if it sounds realistic or plausible

Examples of Lateral Reading:

• Using Wikipedia to learn about the reputation of a source
  • Delete all but the top level domain of a web link then enter the keyword wikipedia to quickly search a source. E.g., https://www.fraserinstitute.org/article/net-zero-the-pathway-to-canadian-decline becomes https://www.fraserinstitute.org wikipedia
  • If the source has no Wikipedia page, then do a Google search or Google News search.
• Checking to see if a story or claim has been reported by multiple reliable sources
  • Check for media bias at AllSides
• Using the web to trace information, quotes, or images back to the original source
  • Use a reputable fact-checking site like Snopes to verify suspicious looking material. Example search: is pyjama bird a real bird snopes
• Using Google Scholar to evaluate the expertise of an author (domain knowledge)
  • Search the author's name in quotation marks followed by the keyword 'scholar,' like so: "jane cauley" scholar
• Using Google Reverse Image Search or TinEye to investigate the history of images
  • Copy and paste an image's URL into TinEye to find the context of an image found online e.g., https://twitter.com/MrChuckD/status/1580632762729787392