ENG 161: Modern American Literature (Gamache): Find/Evaluate Online Sources

Some Steps to Fight Fake News and Misinformation

Be a responsible information consumer.  Here are 6 ways you can evaluate and engage:

1. Think before you share. Read the entire piece, not just the headline, before you decide whether or not to share.

2. Verify an unlikely story.  Check to see if other reliable news sources are reporting the same story.  Snopes and Politifact can also be useful in determining the veracity of a claim or story.

• Snopes

• PolitiFact: Fact-checking US politics

3. Trace the story or information back to the original story and evaluate it.

4. Help debunk fake news.

• Report fake news on Facebook

5. Rethink where you get most of your news. Expand your information network to include diverse perspectives from quality sources.

6. Think critically about your sources.  Remember that:

• Independent sources are preferable to self-interested sources.
• Multiple sources are preferable to a report based on a single source.
• Sources who verify or provide verifiable information are preferable to those who assert or imply.
• Authoritative and/or informed sources are preferable to sources who are uninformed or lack authoritative background.
• Named sources where the author(s) are listed are better than anonymous ones.

Wikipedia

Wikipedia is a popular place to start your research and will likely be one of the top results in a Google search of your topic. A well-developed Wikipedia article, with its content boxes and overviews, will provide a “road-map” of your subject and help you to focus on related and narrower sub-topics. Most introductory paragraphs will offer definitions, related terms, and key historical dates where relevant. Every article provides links to external references and further reading that can be useful sources for you to follow up with. 

However, while it is not quite true that anyone can edit a Wikipedia article, there are concerns about the potential for inaccuracies and misinformation. This is especially true for controversial topics; a quick look at the “Talk” page of any article will reveal how editors are actively involved to ensure that information presented is free from bias and maintains neutrality. Unlike more traditional scholarly sources of information, content on Wikipedia is continually changing. For these reasons, some instructors may caution you against using it in your research, and will probably discourage you from citing it.

source: Doing Research by Celia Brinkerhoff, licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License

How Can Wikipedia Help with Research?

Wikipedia can:

• Provide an introduction to and overview of your topic, and give you ideas for subtopics to focus on
• Contain helpful keywords related to your topic that you can use when doing more in-depth research using library databases
• Provide a list of sources at the end of the entry related to your topic. These sources may be appropriate for your research paper, and/or provide more in depth info on the topics covered in the wikipedia article.

Checking for Bias

Fact Checking Sites

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This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License. Please note that I do not give permission for any part of this LibGuide to be used for any for-profit endeavors, including publication.