Evaluating Misinformation
Misinformation within research, fake photos of celebrities, and advertisements designed to look like news articles are not new concepts.
New technologies can allow misinformation to gain power and coverage through rapid online distribution. We can use these same technologies and online sharing spaces to combat misinformation. Identifying and evaluating misinformation through building our critical thinking and literacy skills are key to this.
Build your critical thinking and literacy skills
You’re about to go on a mountain hike. Do you just jump in your car, head to the mountain and start hiking? Or are there specific things you need to take with you? Are there things to look out for when you are on your hike such as snakes, slippery rocks or poisonous plants?
The same can be said for when we go hiking through the digital world. We need to have the knowledge and the tools to know how to identify potentially dangerous areas and information. Awareness of misinformation is the first step. The next step is knowing how to critically assess information you find and to then evaluate resources based on your experience, strategies or tools.
Different perspectives and misinformation
Everyone has their own perspectives and confirmation biases. We all use beliefs and values to judge the credibility of information. We’re more likely to judge information as trustworthy when it supports not challenges those beliefs and values. This is where critical thinking and literacy skills can be helpful in seeing things beyond your own framing.
Your Task
Watch this climate change focused video (1:48) that shares different perspectives around the same topic.
What do you think about when you hear climate change discussed? Did you notice you paid more attention to information in this video that supported your beliefs?
Spotting red flags – evaluating misinformation strategies
There’s a lot to think about when determining if a resource is false information. Click the plus icons to learn about red flags you can keep in mind when evaluating a resource:
Activity overview
This interactive image hotspot provides information to help determine if a resource contains false information. Each hotspot explores a strategy to evaluating a resource. Hotspots are displayed as plus (+) icons that can be clicked, to present the information.
Hotspot 1
Reflect don’t react
When viewing or reading a piece of information, don’t make a decision based on your initial reaction.
- Language and images can be used in a resource to trigger very strong emotional reactions. It can cause people to get angry or upset, which will draw them into engaging with that resource such as sharing it on social media.
- Text resources might include words like "shocking," "explosive," "outrageous," or "bizarre", to draw your attention.
- Information may make extraordinary claims, such as describing a product as a miracle drug, to get you to buy the product.
Hotspot 2
What’s the agenda?
By questioning who profits or benefits from the information you can spot potential bias or compromised information and data.
- Does the News Outlet or Social Media company have something to gain from promoting this content?
- Are you viewing sponsored content that is designed to look like a legitimate news story or social media post?
Hotspot 3
Credibility
Consider the credibility of where the information is published and who owns or created that information?
- Does the website you are on provide the users with information on who has published the website, such as an About or Contact page?
- If information is provided by an expert, are you able to check their background and history? It’s important to see if an expert is affiliated with a credible institution (such as a university or think tank).
- If information is based on research, what standard methodologies were used? Is the research published in reputable journals or information/news outlets?
Strategies and checklists
Check out the strategies below on how to evaluate information, as they will help to build your critical thinking and literacy skills.
- Dependability checklist - can help you make decisions about the credibility of resources you want to use in your assessments.
- CRAAP Test – use the CRAAP test to review the Currency, Relevance, Authority, Accuracy and Purpose of a resource.
- SIFT - Four things to do when looking at a resource:
- Stop
- Investigate the source
- Find better coverage
- Trace claims, quotes and media to the original context
- How To Spot Fake News - This infographic has 8 strategies to identify and evaluate misinformation.
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Fake News: How to Spot Misinformation - This NPR story has 5 effective tips for dealing with misinformation.
Identifying misinformation with tools
Now that you have started to develop critical thinking around evaluating information. Here are some tools that can assist in the investigation of specific resource types, to see if they contain misinformation.
Familiarise yourself with how to spot fake news
Read the list below for strategies and questions to use when you're looking at news:
- Consider the source: click away from the story to investigate the site, its mission, and its contact information
- Read Beyond: Headlines can be outrageous in an effort to get clicks. What's the whole story?
- Supporting sources: click on those links. Determine if the information given actually supports the story.
- Is it a joke? If it is too outlandish, it might be satire. Research the site and author to be sure.
- Check the author: do a quick search on the author. Are they credible? Are they real?
- Check the date: reposting old news stories doesn't mean they are relevant to current events.
- Check your biases: consider if your own beliefs could affect your judgement
- Ask the Experts: ask a librarian, or consult a fact checking web site
The resources below can help to check the accuracy of claims made online and that these claims have been made by human beings:
News FactChecker Sites
Identify Bot Twitter Accounts
Familiarise yourself with how to spot deep fakes
The essence of a deep fake is a human face, pasted on another body, the area around the face is the most important place to look for inconsistencies.
Here are a few things to watch for:
- Flickering
- Blurriness on the mouth or face
- Unnatural shadows or light
- Unnatural movements, especially of the mouth, jaw and brow
- A mismatch between skin tone or body type
- Lip sync-like movements
For further information visit the article What to watch for in the coming wave of "deep fake" videos by Journalist Samantha Sunne.
Tools you can try
Drag and drop or upload images to Image Search Sites:
Familiarise yourself with how to spot misused or flawed data
Given the importance of data in research and in our world more generally, it’s critical to be able to evaluate the reliability of data. Below are questions one should always ask when evaluating data:
- How was the data collected?
- What’s in there to learn?
- How reliable is the information?
For more information check out the piece on how to Become Data Literate in 3 Simple Steps by data journalist Nicolas Kayser-Bril.
For further information watch the TED video 3 ways to spot bad statistics by Mona Chalabi.
Visit the article on Misleading Statistics by Bernardita Calzom.
Remember and reflect
Key takeaway
Pause, evaluate, and make sure you don't spread misinformation.
Consider
How should I respond when I’ve spotted misinformation?
A great way to combat misinformation is to take time to reflect on the information and resources you come across. Don’t engage with it or share it. Drawing attention to a particular resource and stating that it is false information, is likely going to be heard by some and ignored by others. The best response is to not be a misinformation spreader yourself.