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Navigating Online News and Information (NONI)

Read Laterally

"Lateral reading is a strategy for investigating who's behind an unfamiliar online source [and whether their facts, claims, and evidence are legitimate] by leaving the webpage and opening a new browser tab to see what trusted websites say about the unknown source [and its facts claims, and evidence]" (Stanford SHEG's COR curriculum). Lateral reading should be used to answer both of the following questions:

  1. Who's behind the information (whether an individual author or a group or organization)?
  2. Are the facts, claims, and evidence provided by the source legitimate, reasonable, and/or plausible?

Short video explaining Lateral Reading

A longer and funnier video from Crash Course: Navigating Digital Information explaining Lateral Reading

Demonstration of Lateral Reading by Mike Caulfield

Caulfield is a research scientist at the University of Washington Center for an Informed Public and the developer of the SIFT method for information evaluation.

Resources for Lateral Reading and Fact Checking