Lateral reading is the act of verifying what you’re reading as you’re reading it. Lateral reading helps you determine an author’s credibility, intent, and biases by searching for articles on the same topic by other writers (to see how they are covering it) and for other articles by the author you’re checking on. That’s what professional fact-checkers do. For more on the definition and lateral reading, you can take a look at the News Literacy Project.
Learn how to SIFT sources using Lateral Reading via these helpful videos: