Important Rules of Thumb — SIFT
When it comes to checking online information, what do we do to ensure content is not misinformation or disinformation? There are many tips, tricks, and rules of thumb to help identify misinformation and disinformation.
My personal favorite is the acronym SIFT. “Stop” and take time to read through the text, “investigate” the source and its history, “find” credible information so which means going to other major publications and seeing if the news is in more than one place, and “track” the original piece.
Another method of checking online information is the Wikipedia trick, which is where you remove the last part of an URL and replace it with the word Wikipedia. The results bring up information about the author, website, and background information in general. Another resource we learned in class is to check websites such as Snopes and PolitiFact, which debunks fake news by fact-checking the information published online. With all this in mind, it brings us to our first rule of thumb which is that breaking news stories will be reported by multiple outlets, not just one. If only one outlandish story is reported by one outlet, then it could be a case of disinformation.
An additional takeaway from what I previously mentioned is “click restraint,” which poses the question, what is this headline trying to tell me? Headlines are notorious for clickbait, so being aware of this can help media consumers organize what information they want to believe. So the “click restraint” procedure would be to investigate the source or use the Wikipedia trick. By analyzing the source, the reader can determine if the website has a hidden agenda or is biased towards one group because if they are, that changes the dynamic of their story-telling.
Lastly, another rule of thumb is to trace the content to its original source. This can be accomplished by doing a text description or reverse image search. For example, if you suspect an image has been altered or taken out of context, this would be an ideal way to debunk that notion.
