Intro to SIFT
Now that we've covered some of the basics about what fake news is and where it comes from, it's time to consider how all of us can do our part to prevent the spread of misinformation. The good news is that fact checking doesn't have to be a strenuous process, and you don't need to have a PhD in order to master the basics.
Mike Caulfield came up with a quick, easy method to help ordinary people be more aware about the quality of the information they absorb. His method is called SIFT, and that's what we're going to learn.
Nearly everything about SIFT on this guide is taken from Caulfield's free online course, which has been made available for others to copy and reuse. If you want more details about fake news and about SIFT, take a look at Check, Please or his free ebook, Web Literacy for Student Fact-Checkers.
In this short intro vid, Caulfield explains why fact-checking is so important and describes an experiment done at Stanford University to compare students' and professional historians' source-verification skills with those of professional fact-checkers.
About the SIFT Method
SIFT stands for 4 simple steps that will help make you a savvier information connoisseur. Here's the breakdown.
