Stop
- When you first hit a page and start to read it — STOP.
- Ask yourself whether you know and trust the website or source of the information. If you don't, use the other moves to get a sense of what you're looking at. Don't read it or share it until you know what it is.
Investigate the Source
- Know what you're reading before you read it. What is the expertise and agenda of the source?
Find trusted coverage
- Does the article represent a consensus viewpoint? Is it is the subject of much disagreement? Ignore the source that reached you and look for other trusted reporting or analysis on the claim.
- Scan multiple sources to see what the consensus seems to be.
Trace claims, quotes and media back to the original context
- Trace the claim, quote, or media back to the source, so you can see it in its original context and get a sense if the version you saw was accurately presented.
- A lot of things you find on the internet have been stripped of context. Maybe there's a video of a fight between two people. But what happened before that? Who started it? What was clipped out of the video and what stayed in? Maybe there's a picture that seems real but the caption is dubious at best. Maybe a claim is made about a new medical treatment supposedly based on a research paper — but you're not certain if the paper supports it.
It's about REcontextualizing
- Investigate the source. Who the speaker or publisher is. What's their expertise? What's their agenda? What's their record of fairness or accuracy?
- When evidence is presented with a certain frame — whether a quote or a video or a scientific finding — sometimes it helps to reconstruct the original context in which the photo was taken or research claim made. It can look quite different in context!
Introducing SIFT (notion.so)