The Internet allows people to create and to share information in ways that once seemed possible only in science fiction. At the same time that we can benefit from the open nature of the Internet, it's sometimes hard to decide what online information to trust and to use.
This guide offers some simple, evidence-based strategies for evaluating the credibility of online sources.
These strategies will help you look beyond less important surface features of a web source (for example, how professional it looks or if it's a .org), and think more carefully about who is behind the source, what their purpose is, and how trustworthy and credible they are.
Find what others say about a website. In Google search for "[WEBSITE URL] site: -[WEBSITE URL].
Examples:
The results will be from other websites. While some may have some relationship to the original domain, other sites can give insight into what others say about that site.
Learn more about "web searching a domain" from Web Literacy for Student Fact-Checkers.
Check a Twitter account. Some Twitter accounts claim to be something they are not. To check the validity of a Twitter account:
Learn more from this post by Mike Caulfield.
Check the origins of an image. If you find an image on a web page or a social media site like Twitter and are unsure of its authenticity, you can check its orgins with a reverse image search. In the Chrome browser right-click on the image and select Search Google for image. The image search results will show you other places where the image has appeared. Examine these results to see if there are any discussions about the trustworthiness or origins of the image.
Learn more from Web Literacy for Student Fact-Checkers.
Do you have a strong reaction to the information you see (e.g., joy, pride, anger)? If so, slow down before you share or use that information.
We tend to react quickly and with less thought to things that evoke strong feelings. By pausing, you give your brain time to process your initial response and to analyze the information more critically. Then you are better able to make use of the "Four Moves" described above.
When you first come across a web source, do a quick initial assessment, much like a fact-checker does. Fact-checkers don't spend too much time on a website; instead they quickly leave that site to see what others have said about the site.
(Adapted from “Four Moves,” Web Literacy for Student Fact-Checkers, Mike Caulfield)
Later, when you determine that the site is worth your time, you can analyze the source's content more carefully.
Online Verification Skills - Video 1 (Newswise)
Online Verification Skills - Video 2: Investigate the Source (Newswise)
CC-BY-NC-SA
This guide was created by Andrea Baer and Dan Kipnis at Rowan University and is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License (CC-BY-NC-SA).
