4.5 Fact-Checking: The SIFT Method
Mike Caulfield, Washington State University digital literacy expert, has helpfully condensed key fact-checking strategies into a short list of four moves, or things to do to quickly make a decision about whether or not a source is worthy of your attention. It is referred to as the “SIFT” method:
Stop
When you initially encounter a source of information and start to read it—stop.
Check your emotions before engaging (remember, we have emotional relationships to information).
Ask yourself whether you know and trust the author/publisher/creator. If you don’t, use the other fact-checking moves below to verify it is reliable.
Investigate the Source (*this is the most important strategy*)
You don’t have to do a three-hour investigation into a source before you engage with it. But if you’re reading a piece on economics, and the author is a Nobel prize-winning economist, that would be useful information. Likewise, if you’re watching a video on the many benefits of milk consumption, you would want to be aware if the video was produced by the dairy industry. This doesn’t mean the Nobel economist will always be right and that the dairy industry can’t ever be trusted. But knowing the expertise and agenda of the person who created the source is crucial to your interpretation of the information provided.
When investigating a source, fact-checkers read “laterally” across many websites, rather than digging deep (reading “vertically”) into the one source they are evaluating. They don’t spend much time on the source itself, but instead they quickly get off the page and see what others have said about the source.
Find Better Coverage
What if the source you find is low-quality, or you can’t determine if it is reliable or not?
Your best strategy in this case might actually be to find a better source altogether, to look for other coverage that includes trusted reporting or analysis on that same claim.
Rather than relying on the source that you initially found, you can trade up for a higher quality source, and invest your time there instead.
Trace Claims, Quotes, and Media to the Original Context
Much of what we find on the internet has been stripped of context. Maybe a claim is made about a new medical treatment based on a research finding—but you’re not certain if the research paper actually said that. The people who re-report these stories either get things wrong by mistake, or, in some cases, they are intentionally misleading us.
In these cases you will want to trace the claim, quote, or media back to the source, so you can see it in its original context and get a sense of whether the version you saw was accurately presented.
Adapted from "Introduction to College Research Links to an external site." by Walter Butler, Aloha Sargent, and Kelsey Smith, licensed under CC BY 4.0 Links to an external site.
SIFT text adapted from “Check, Please! Starter Course Links to an external site.,” licensed under CC BY 4.0 Links to an external site.
SIFT text and graphics adapted from “SIFT (The Four Moves) Links to an external site.” by Mike Caulfield, Links to an external site. licensed under CC BY 4.0 Links to an external site.