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Sociology 185 (George)

Indigenous Sociology

Reliability

Source Reliability: Information sources fall on a spectrum of unreliable to reliable.

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More important than whether or not an article is popular or scholarly, is whether or not it is trustworthy? Is the information reliable or unreliable? To complicate matters, not all source types are always reliable nor are they always unreliable.

  • For instance, a news article could be reliable or unreliable depending on the author, publication, or even news type (opinion vs. reporting). 
  • Even a scholarly article, though generally thought to be reliable, could be unreliable.  See RetractionWatch's Leaderboard for a list of science researchers who have their scholarly papers retracted, often for falsified information!
  • The video "Who Can You Trust?" speaks more on on the topic. Visit the tab above.

Watch the video below (2:46) for strategies to apply in your evaluation of information.

Questions:

  1. What are the main strategies suggested for assessing the reliability of information?
  2. Which of these strategies do you already use? 
  3. Which of these strategies is perhaps more challenging for you?

from GCFLearnFree.og (2:46)

 

Watch the video below for a crash course in thinking about information evaluation (14:46).  The host speaks about the concepts of authority and perspective. If you're not sure about the length, try at least the first minute!

Questions:

  1. The host speaks of two primary considerations when evaluation information.  What are they?
  2. Fill in the Blank: The host encourages us to "leave sites to understand them".  This involves not just vertical reading but _____________ reading.
  3. It is important to think about the process by which information is created. True or False?
  4. What word does the host prefer to use as a replacement for bias and why?

Who Can You Trust? with David Green, Navigation Digital Information (CrashCourse); involved collaboration with MediaWise, Poynter Institute, and the Stanford History Education Group

Reading Laterally to Evaluate Sources

Image credit: milton.edu/lateralreading

Transcript of this Graphic

Reading Laterally: Checking Online Sources Quicker and with More Accuracy

What is reading laterally? Evaluate a source by reading about it on other, trustworthy sites.

  1. Open a few new tabs in your browser to search outside of the website itself.
  2. Start by searching the name of the website. Use fact checking sites like Politifact or Snopes
  3. Return to the website and scan for additional information, such as a publisher or author name.

How is your source viewed by others? Combining the information from your various searches should give you a good idea of how this website is viewed and, therefore, whether it is reliable.

The point is to look outside of the website, do not rely on how the website describes itself (such as “about us” page).