Information Literacy
In This Chapter
Learning Objectives
- Learn strategies for quickly evaluating the sources and information you find
Summary
Whenever a source provokes a strong positive or negative feeling, that’s a sign to check the information. There are a variety of ways to check information: by learning more about the source, learning more about the claim, or finding the original source of the information. You don’t have to do all of these steps every time. Choose what is most likely to help you put the information into context.
SIFT Method
In the last two chapters we talked about what kinds of sources are out there and how you might find them. Now let’s talk about how you can evaluate the sources you find. In the Introduction chapter we said that even though there is a lot of competing information out there, it is possible to move closer to better information (even if finding the absolute truth is a big and elusive project). This chapter outlines four “moves” that will help you do this.
These moves are about using the whole web to figure out what type of source you’ve got or the accuracy of a statement. This may be quite different than what you have heard in other information literacy lessons. Looking around the web isn’t “cheating,” it’s taking advantage of the most powerful tool you have. If we only use the information from the source itself, we risk being misled by that source or by our own existing opinions on the topic.
Here is a helpful acronym to help you remember the four moves: S.I.F.T.:
These are four things you might do as you try to move towards better information. This is not a checklist. You don’t need to do all of these things every time you’re evaluating information, and you may want to try a couple but in a different order than this. You can use whichever ones make sense in a particular situation.
Stop
Check your emotions. If a claim causes strong emotion — anger, glee, pride, vindication — STOP. You must fact-check this claim. Remember from the chapter, Our Mental Shortcuts, that we more readily accept information that confirms our beliefs (confirmation bias) and we tend to think less critically about that kind of information than we do about information that challenges our beliefs (motivated reasoning.) A strong emotional reaction is a sign that these cognitive biases are at work. Remember, these mental shortcuts don’t make us bad people, we all have them. But we do need to account for them if we want to move toward better information.
In addition, if you get lost while working on the other moves, or hit dead ends, or find yourself going down an increasingly confusing rabbit hole during your investigation, STOP. Back up and start over knowing what you know now. You’re likely to take a more informed path with different search terms and better decisions.
Investigate the source
The key idea here is to know what you’re reading before you read it. This doesn’t mean you have to do a Pulitzer prize-winning investigation into a