Lateral reading is an effective technique for investigating a text critically. It is easy to get caught up in the content of the message, but when you read laterally, the focus is instead placed on the sender and the story.

When reading laterally online, you can, for example, search for information about the sender and the story. What do other sources, such as Wikipedia, say about the sender? What background does the sender have? What has the person in question previously written? Might the sender have a hidden agenda? For example, might the sender gain economically or politically by convincing you? Have editorial media written anything about the case? Once you have investigated this, you can better assess whether the sender has a valuable and relevant contribution to the story/case.

Stanford University has investigated who is best at exposing questionable websites: a history professor, a student, or a fact-checker. Below is the first video in a series of four, where Mike Caulfield summarises the study and shows how you can become an effective fact-checker yourself. But who exactly is Mike Caulfield, and who is behind the video - it will be up to you to read laterally.

Video: First Draft. (2020). Understanding Information disorder. firstdraftnews.org

Do you want to know more?

You can learn more about lateral reading by visiting the Stanford University website, or in Norwegian at Medietilsynet (the Norwegian Media Authority) and Tenk.

But before you visit these websites, who do you think is behind the Tenk website, and who funds them? Can you quickly figure it out through an online search?

Modules: Social media News media 🔒 Academic literature 🔒 Artificial intelligence 🔒