Information has never been created or available in such abundance in human history. According to Forbes, “Over the last two years alone 90 percent of the data in the world was generated.” It’s almost impossible to comprehend.
With such abundance there will inevitably information presented along different ranges of accuracy and truthiness. Thank you, Stephen Colbert.
The notion that honest organizations present honest information has been hijacked with narratives of fake news as well as by devious attempts to misrepresent and mislead people online through phishing and spoofing.
Michael Caufield’s four moves – check for previous work, go upstream to the source, read laterally and circle back – give a good robust framework for the reader who is looking to be critical and cautious with online material. Including his added habit of check your emotions to these four behaviours should remind us that evaluating fact or fiction is not only about the brain but the heart as well.
Since the power of marketing can be used for good or evil, the same emotional triggers which result in charitable giving can result in false information being spread at the expense of truth and accuracy. It’s not only the apparent validity of the information itself which results in fake news being shared.
Over time I’ve learned to rely primarily on Snopes and Wikipedia to verify information online while also practicing a rule-of-thumb to not be the first to post any news or information when I’m not able to feel assured that what I’m posting is true and accurate.