Sophomore Symposium: SIFT

Pause. Check in with yourself.

Are you having an emotional reaction (sad, mad, frustrated, outraged, excited, etc.) to this information? Are you bringing any biases with you that impact your reaction, such as confirmation bias (favoring information we already believe is true) or the framing effect (being unduly influenced by context or delivery) 

Consider: 

• What is my initial reaction?
• What do I already know about the topic?
• What do I know about the source?

Know what you're looking at. Where is the information coming from? 

Open up some new tabs and investigate the creator, source, and the claims being made. 

Consider:

• Who created this?
• What's the aim or purpose? Is it news, satire, propaganda, advertising, entertainment, data?
• What's the creator's background and expertise?
• What is the reputation of the source?
• Follow the money! 

Look for coverage of the same information in different sources.

Look for corroborating and conflicting information.  If the only corroboration is from sources that use each other as evidence or all cite just one person or website, there's probably a reason (hint: it's likely not credible information).

Consider:

• Are other reputable sources reporting the same information or story?
• Do fact-checkers support the claims being made?
• Is there more to the story than what's being presented?
• Is there general consensus or disagreement about claims being made?

Go back to the original.

A lot of what we find on the internet has been stripped of context. Trace claims, quotes, and media back to the original source. Finding the original source of information can help you determine if what you saw is an accurate representation of the original. Tip: Try a reverse image search to find other places the image or video has appeared on the internet.

Consider:

Is what you found a summary or interpretation of information from somewhere else?

What was the original context?

Is part of the claim, quote, or video missing from your source?