Writer’s Blog #5
After reading all the assigned lessons I have definitely gained more knowledge on what exactly fact checking is and how I can create a habit of doing this action. There are so many times when I encounter information on the internet and struggle to determine if what I am reading is true or false. Check Please! Lesson One allowed me to discover that the techniques that I learned from my teachers in elementary and middle school are considered bad. As a sophomore in college this feels like a crazy realization to discover right now. I wish I had learned this sooner. This makes me wonder how many people out there still have not had their eyes opened to this important information.
There were a few techniques that my previous teachers taught me that I recently discovered are not correct to follow. First, I always thought that a website was not super trustworthy if it contained ads. So, I would put more trust into the pages that had little to no ads. Another rule I was taught to follow was to put more trust into websites that end in .org rather than .com. These were two of the many bad techniques that I was taught. Although it took me a long time to realize that I should not follow these rules, I am happy that I have finally found the correct steps that I should follow.
The biggest aspect of Lesson One that stood out to me the most is the idea of SIFT. Each letter of SIFT stands for a different move that we must do to successfully look at digital content. The first letter “S” stands for Stop. The next time I open a website I must remember to stop and ask myself an important question. Do I know this website and trust the information it is giving me? If the answer to this question is not a 100% yes then you should move to the next letter which is “I.” “I’ stands for investigate the source. It is so important to know exactly what it is that you are reading before actually reading it. This move is meant to dive deeper into who exactly wrote the information on the website, where this information was found, and the overall expertise of the source. By gaining this knowledge before reading the article or website, it will save you from wasting your time on something that might not even be trustworthy. The next move to make is “F” which stands for finding trusted claims. This means that you should find other sources that are discussing the same topic that you are reading about. Lastly the letter “T” which stands for trace claims, quotes, and media back to the original context. It is extremely important to keep searching until you find the original context. It is so easy to photoshop a picture or edit out bits and pieces in a video. These are reasons that we should not believe and go around spreading information before we know it is completely accurate.
I am so happy I have gained all this new knowledge. I now know how important it is to make sure to fact check any information I see on a website or social media app before spreading it around. There have been times where I see a headline then immediately tell my friends about it before even reading the article. I have learned my lesson and will be making sure to use the tools I have learned in the future.
