ANYONE can publish on the Web! What you see is a mix of the good, the bad, and the ugly. Evaluate each website critically before using it for your research.
The CRAAP Test is a common checklist used to evaluate an information resource.
Currency: The timeliness of the web page.
Relevance: The uniqueness of the content and its importance for your needs.
Authority: The source of the web page.
Accuracy: The reliability, truthfulness, and correctness of the informational content.
Purpose: The presence of bias or prejudice/The reason the web site exists.
The CRAAP Test was created by Meriam Library at California State University, Chico.
Take a look at the address or URL. Do you know what the domain names are for websites? Here are the ones you will see most often.
.com = commercial
.org = organization
.net = network
.gov = government
.edu = education
What is Fake News?
There are four broad categories of fake news, according to media professor Melissa Zimdars of Merrimack College.
CATEGORY 1: Fake, false, or regularly misleading websites that are shared on Facebook and social media. Some of these websites may rely on “outrage” by using distorted headlines and decontextualized or dubious information in order to generate likes, shares, and profits.
CATEGORY 2: Websites that may circulate misleading and/or potentially unreliable information
CATEGORY 3: Websites which sometimes use clickbait-y headlines and social media descriptions
CATEGORY 4: Satire/comedy sites, which can offer important critical commentary on politics and society, but have the potential to be shared as actual/literal news
No single topic falls under a single category - for example, false or misleading medical news may be entirely fabricated (Category 1), may intentionally misinterpret facts or misrepresent data (Category 2), may be accurate or partially accurate but use an alarmist title to get your attention (Category 3) or may be a critique on modern medical practice (Category 4.) Some articles fall under more than one category. Assessing the quality of the content is crucial to understanding whether what you are viewing is true or not. It is up to you to do the legwork to make sure your information is good.
Professor Zimdar's Google Doc includes a list of identified sources of fake, misleading news and satire
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Quick Exercise: Compare these two links. Which one do you think is true? Why or why not? Fact Checking Links
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Additional information on Fake News: Fake News - from Rider University; Fake News - from Fordham University
Determining "good" information from "bad" can get tricky sometimes. One way to decide what's what is to ask a librarian for help, or you can use SIFT, a set of 4 'moves'.
SIFT stands for:
The idea of SIFT comes from Mike Caulfield and is reused here under a Creative Commons license.
Here are some helpful websites:
NLP empowers educators to teach students the skills they need to be smart, active consumers of news and other information and engaged, informed participants in civic life. It also provides people of all ages with tools and resources that enable them to identify credible information and know what to trust, share and act on.
Mike Caulfield's blog is about critically evaluating pandemic-related news and information. This site teaches a four-step process to use with coronavirus-related information that will show you “the skills that will make a dramatic difference in your ability to sort fact from fiction on the web (and everything in between).