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 this helpful video:
SIFT is a method to examine the credibility of sources. Follow the four steps below to analyze whether the information you have found is worth using!
If you don't know about the source or generally accepted facts in the topic, then move on the following steps to figure out if the source and/or the claim/headline/report is trustworthy and factual.
The SIFT method was created by Mike Caulfield. All SIFT information on this page is adapted from his materials with a CC BY 4.0 license. SIFT Outline used from LSU CampusGuide.
CRAAP is an acronym for Currency, Relevance, Authority, Accuracy, and Purpose. Use the CRAAP Test to evaluate your sources.
Currency: the timeliness of the information
Relevance: the importance of the information for your needs
Authority: the source of the information
Accuracy: the reliability, truthfulness, and correctness of the content
Purpose: the reason the information exists
Glendale Community College | 1500 North Verdugo Road, Glendale, California 91208 | Tel: 818.240.1000
GCC Home © 2024 - Glendale Community College. All Rights Reserved.