It is rarely easy to assess information on social media on your own. To become a better editor, it can therefore be useful to get some tips from professional fact-checkers.

Cross-reading is an effective technique for reading critically. It’s easy to get caught up in the content of the message, but when you cross-read, the focus is instead on the sender and the issue.

Stanford University has investigated who is best at uncovering dubious websites: a history professor, a student, or a fact-checker. Below, you’ll find the first video in a series of four, in which Mike Caulfield summarizes the study and demonstrates how you yourself can proceed to become an effective fact-checker. But who exactly is Mike Caulfield, and who is behind the video—that will be up to you to cross-read.

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 🔒