A Crash Course in Media Literacy
Learn how Lateral Reading, Reading Upstream, Reverse-image searching, and Fact-checking tools make you a critical consumer in the attention economy.
Shortly after Hurricane Milton in October 2024, Disney fans across social media became immediately troubled when they saw a photo of Cinderella’s castle underwater. This image rapidly spread online but was fabricated and created with artificial intelligence.
Rumorguard, an online fact-checking website, confirmed this photograph is not authentic. It is an AI-generated image that falsely suggests the castle was flooded following Hurricane Milton.
Media Saturation Era
According to Statistica, the average U.S. citizen spends 721 minutes daily with media.
Estimates vary on the exact number, but most experts agree that the average person sees thousands of advertising messages daily.
The average person is estimated to be exposed to 10,000 “brand” marketing messages daily.
How do we determine whether what we see in the digital landscape is true, fabricated, or AI-generated? Now more than ever, the United States needs digital media education. This article guide will help you navigate the swamp of misinformation online and become a critical consumer with supercharged digital literacy skills. Let’s dig in.
Use Lateral reading
In 2016, Stanford researchers found that people often take a website or article they read as fact, especially if it has slick images or graphics. Lateral reading is a great way to check whether your reading is accurate and based on reality or is misinformation.
Lateral reading enables you to determine an author’s credibility, intent, and biases by searching for articles on the same topic by other writers (to see how they cover it) and other articles by the author you’re checking on. This is what professional fact-checkers do.
You can use lateral reading in two ways: to verify a source’s credibility and to discover what other sources say about a particular subject.
If you want to verify a source’s credibility using lateral reading, use the following steps,
Exit out of the post or website you are currently on or open up new tabs.
Do a keyword search of the website/source for more information.
Find and open multiple websites that tell you more about the source.
Compare and contrast the information you read about the source to determine whether it is reliable.
If you can’t verify the information from multiple credible sources, it is likely not good information.
Three questions to ask
According to Poynter and Media Wise, there are three questions to ask about what you are reading:
Who is behind the information?
What is the evidence?
What are other sources saying?
Here is a great video explaining how fact-checkers use lateral reading that goes through everything step by step.
Additionally, the Wayback Machine is one of the most powerful tools for checking out who’s behind the information. This Internet Archive, which has saved billions of web pages spanning decades, allows you to go back in time and see if the source you’re reading has a devious history or lacks expertise in what it is saying.
Read Upstream
Reading upstream is a research practice used to evaluate sources found on the open web and identify conversations about a given issue. Going upstream entails locating the source of specific statements and ideas in online artifacts by going “upstream” to the source of claims we encounter. Going upstream tracks down the sources of information in an article by noticing any references mentioned throughout the source and then finding those things.
For instance, if you are reading an article in Rolling Stone that mentions reporting done in The New York Times, we track down the source from The New York Times. If that article from The New York Times mentions reporting done in The Atlantic or FiveThirtyEight, we could track that information down. Then, if the FiveThirtyEight article mentions research done by the Center for Disease Control, we could also track that down.
The neat thing about going upstream is that it not only helps us get a sense of what the larger conversation is about the issue we’re researching, but it is also a practice that we can continue to engage in at a more profound level anytime we encounter information on the open web.
Understand algorithms and check your feelings
Disinformation uses emotionally charged language to achieve its goals, including fear-mongering, cherry-picking, and scapegoating. See my previous post about algorithms farming our rage below. If the information you read enrages you, it’s time to look at why and take a closer look.
Rage Farming Drives the Algorithms
Attention is the new currency. Every second I spend online, I decide where to spend my attention. Should I devote any mindshare to this comment or that headline? I answer this question whenever an attractive link catches my eye or headlines are written as clickbait. Becoming aware that life o…
Utilize online fact-checking tools
Rumorguard - The news literacy project funds Rumorguard and debunks widespread online rumors that have gone viral. You can check here first if you think some viral claim is nefarious.
Snopes - "The definitive Internet reference source for urban legends, folklore, myths, rumors, and misinformation."
Politifact - "Nonpartisan, independent, and nonprofit, the Center for Responsive Politics is the nation's premier research group tracking money in U.S. politics and its effect on elections and public policy."
Factcheck.org - "FactCheck.org is a project of the Annenberg Public Policy Center of the University of Pennsylvania....a nonpartisan, nonprofit “consumer advocate” for voters that aims to reduce deception and confusion in U.S. politics. We monitor the factual accuracy of what major U.S. political players say through TV ads, debates, speeches, interviews, and news releases."
Duke Reporter’s Lab includes a database of global fact-checking sites, which can be viewed as a map or a list. It also explains how they identify fact-checkers.
Look carefully at photos
Suppose you come across an image that evokes a strong emotional response. This is a red flag in the same way that words are. Be wary of photos or videos that explicitly push political messages and appear to confirm pre-conceived biases. If, for example, you see an image of a celebrity wearing an anti-Trump or anti-vaccine shirt, it might be a good idea to take a second look at those photos.
Also, be wary of photos that contain text. While skilled digital editors can alter just about any photo aspect, one of the easiest and quickest ways to manipulate an image is to add or change text within the image. For example, remember that the text could have been altered if you see someone holding a sign. Second, watch for odd-looking heads, as photo shoppers love to place one person's head onto another person's body. Finding the photo's origins or parts is always helpful in determining whether it is accurate.
The fake news debunker by InVID and WeVerify is one of the most potent tools for spotting misinformation online. After installing this Google Chrome plug-in, you can right-click any image on Facebook, Twitter, or any other website, scroll down to “Image Reverse Search—Google,” and find the original source.
Here is a helpful video showing how to reverse image search using Google.
Given the polarized media landscape of 2024 and misinformation's impacts on the 2024 election and democracy, we must remain grounded in reality and help others do the same with the media they consume.
*I am currently working on a follow-up tutorial to this substack explaining how I found that a student’s source in a speech for my Public Speaking class was a hate group disguised as a nonprofit.org. Stay tuned.
this is so important. media literacy is a challenge.
I am using this article as a reference for fact checking in future. It is rich with good information. I knew of some sources, but you gave so many more I can use. Thanks