Speech Communication: Evaluating Sources

SIFT is a helpful acronym for evaluating source credibility.

 SIFT (from Mike Caulfield) stands for:

• STOP.  When you first hit a page or post and start to read it — STOP. Ask yourself whether you know the website or source of the information, and what the reputation of both the claim and the website is. If you don’t have that information, use the other moves to get a sense of what you’re looking at. 
• INVESTIGATE the source.  Take a minute to identify where this information comes from and to consider the creator's expertise and agenda. Is this source worth your  time? Look at what others have said about the source to help with you these questions. Use a fact checking web site to help you identify the source. You can also use Wikipedia or Google the source to do a quick check of who is creating the information and/or funding it.
• FIND trusted coverage. Sometimes it's less important to know about the source and more important to assess their claim. Look for credible sources; compare information across sources and determine whether there appears to be a consensus. Do you need to find the original source to get all of the information?
• TRACE claims, quotes, and media back to the original context. Sometimes online information has been removed from its original context (for example, a news story is reported on in another online publication or an image is shared on Twitter). See if you can find the original article or tweet or image--and understand how it was originally presented.

Modified from Mike Caulfield's SIFT (Four Moves), which is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

Evaluating where information comes from is a crucial part of deciding whether it is trustworthy.  

When you are evaluating a web site, don't just rely on the information from the site itself. You can open new browser tabs and do a little background research on the site, creators of the site, or the claims promoted on the site. 

 Lateral reading is a strategy for Investigating who's behind an unfamiliar online source by leaving the webpage and opening a new browser tab to see what trusted websites say about the unknown source.

In this video, The Digital Inquiry Group (formerly The Stanford History Education Group) demonstrates Lateral Reading in action.

You can use these sites to see if the source of the information you want to use has already been researched.

• AP Fact Check "Fact-checking, accountability journalism and misinformation coverage from AP journalists around the globe.
• FactCheck.org  A project of the Annenberg Public Policy Center of the University of Pennsylvania, this nonpartisan, nonprofit seeks to "reduce the level of deception and confusion in U.S. Politics (FactCheck.org - About Us)."
• Fact Checker --The Washington Post  The Post's guide to the news, using the Pinocchio ratings
• Politifact "PolitiFact is a nonpartisan fact-checking website that rates the accuracy of claims by elected officials and others who speak up in American politics. PolitiFact was created by editors and reporters from the Tampa Bay Times..." and is now owned by the Poynter Institute.
• Reuters Fact Checking Reuters journalism fact checking feed.
• Snopes Long time fact checking and myth debunking website.

When we have a question or are searching for sources, we are likely turn to a search engine to help us find answers.

We often click on the first result— but the first result is not always the best place to start! 

Stopping and practicing Click Restraint can help us make a more informed choice about where to go first.

In this video, the Digital Inquiry Group shows how to practice Click Restraint.