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Understanding Information Literacy (MGMT3355)

What is Lateral Reading?

Lateral reading is a technique for researching a publication, website, or author for credibility, reliability, potential bias, and reputation.

We call this "lateral reading" because you should make use of multiple tabs across a browser in order to find information about a site.

When confronted with a website of unknown credibility, spend time researching the site, its owner, and/or the author of the information before reading the article on the site.

Is this different from RADAR?

The RADAR evaluation is typically applied to individual articles rather than whole websites or publications. To evaluate a site or publication laterally, consider these questions:

  • What is the process?
    • In RADAR, we ask you to evaluate bias. But publications can have a bias and still be credible.
    • The process for verifying facts, correcting mistakes, and encouraging accuracy is what defines a reliable source, regardless of bias.
    • This is one reason we rely heavily on peer-review in academia.
  • What is the expertise?
    • This question could include the author's expertise OR who the author cites as an expert.
    • If the article is written by a professional/researcher, is it within their area of expertise?
    • If the article is written by a journalist/generalist, do they seek out expert opinions (quotes, interviews)
      • Or, are they a niche reporter who may have gained expertise by writing in an area (i.e. medical journalist) for many years.
  • What is the aim?
    • Aim can loosely be defined as the incentive the author/site has to get things correct
      • One or two wrong facts in an opinion piece are less damaging to the author than incorrect facts in a news article
      • Policy think tanks have more incentive to portray facts honestly than advocacy blogs (this is why .org websites are not always reliable).