Lateral vs. Vertical Reading
From the context of fake news, vertical reading involves examining the news source to determine the credibility of a news story. This could mean examining a news website's About Us page, looking at grammatical errors within the article, determining the author's bias, and checking the sources the authors used. However, depending solely on vertical reading can be problematic since content is easily created and fabricated online.
In addition to using vertical reading, another method of evaluating news is lateral reading. This involves going beyond the news source and performing further research on the news source, its authors, and information being presented in the news story.
Source: Lateral Reading: Reading Less and Learning More When Evaluating Digital Information; Icon made by Freepik from www.flaticon.com
Tips for Reading Laterally
Investigate the source
Look at what others are telling you about the news source/author and not what they're saying about themselves. Tip: Search the source and author's name to see what types of sites are referencing them or what they're saying about them.
Go Upstream: Find the Original Source
Trace back to the original reporting source of the data or information. Once you've figured out the original source, you can then proceed with verifying its credibility.
Look for Trusted Sources
Check out fact-checking sites (see Tools for examples) to see if these sites have checked the news story. Fact-checking sites can save you time since they have already done the verification work. Consider traditional news sources, such as newspapers. If you're unsure about a news story found in a source you're not familiar with, you can search online to see if the story has been covered by major news sources.
Practice "Click Restraint"
Before clicking on a search result, examine the URL and information snippets about the source.
Sources: Online Verification Skills with Mike Caulfield; Lateral Reading: Reading Less and Learning More When Evaluating Digital Information
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Try the SPOT or CRAAP test to help determine if your news source is a credible one.
Does the news story sound too good to be true? Spend a few minutes to verify the facts.
Share wisely! One way to limit the spread of fake news is to check the credibility of news before sharing through social media.
Go beyond the headline. Look at the news story's quotes, images, author and URL to determine its credibility.
Check Your News
Fact-checking websites can be useful tools in determining if a news story is accurate. These sites perform the fact-checking by reviewing the story's claims and verifying the validity of the information and authors. Check out some of these fact-checking websites.