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Media Literacy Guide: Fact Checking Strategies, Tutorials, and Textbooks

Fact and Source Checking Tutorial and Textbook

Michael A. Caulfield's excellent guide provides numerous tips for fact checking and finding reliable sources of information on the internet.

SIFT, an alternative to the check list approach

SIFT, an alternative to the checklist approach:

The idea of SIFT comes from Mike Caulfield and is reused here under a Creative Commons license.

Michael A. Caulfield's Web Literacy Model

​Michael A. Caulfield of Washington State University identifies "four moves" you should make when confronted with a dubious claim. Here's how he describes these "four moves" in his book
Web Literacy for Student Fact-Checkers:

"Check for previous work": Has someone else already investigated the claim?

"Go upstream to the source": Find the original source of the information.

"Read laterally": Once you find the source, “read what other people say about the source (publication, author, etc.)."

"Circle back": “If you get lost, … back up and start over knowing what you know now."

"Four Moves." Press Books,
     webliteracy.pressbooks.com/chapter/four-strategies/.

 

 

Michael Caulfield on Evaluating Authority and Reliability

 

Drawing on the Wikipedia community’s collective understanding of what makes a reliable source, Michael Caulfield identifies three contributing factors in his book

Web Literacy for Student Fact-Checkers:

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What makes a news source reliable?

  1. Process: A reliable source will have “a process in place for encouraging accuracy, verifying facts, and correcting mistakes.”  Newspapers, for example, have reputations to maintain. It is in their best interests to maintain accuracy, and to make corrections when necessary. The New York Times leans slightly left on the media bias chart, and the Wall Street Journal leans slightly right, but both have earned a reputation for accurate reporting independently of bias.
  1. Expertise: An author’s expertise bolsters their authority to write on a particular subject. Expertise can be based on professional experience, education, and training. 
  1. Aim: What is the “publication, author, or media source attempting to accomplish?” What “incentives” does a publisher or “author have to get things right?” Does the publication have a reputation to maintain? Would inaccuracies and mistakes damage that reputation?

"Evaluating a Web Site or Publication's Authority." Web Literacy for Student Fact Checkers, 2017. Press Books, webliteracy.pressbooks.com/chapter/evaluating-a-website-or-publications-reliability/.