Topic Two (1.2): Evaluating Online Information

Objectives for this topic

By the end of this topic, you should know:

  • Why it is important to evaluate online information
  • What fake news is.

You might also:

  • Know what questions to ask to try and determine whether information you find on the internet is true and comes from a reliable source.

Introduction

Today we have the world's information at our fingertips, literally! You can search for almost anything online. It is important to make sure the information you get from the internet is factual. You also want to make sure it comes from a reliable source. Anyone can publish information on the internet, so it is important to make sure the information is trustworthy.

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‘Fake news’ is a relatively new term, but one that we now hear all the time.

Fake news describes news that is false, made up, or not real. It is posted online so it looks real and is meant to try and trick people into thinking it is real. There are millions of fake news pages and websites on the internet and the problem keeps growing. It makes evaluating what you read even more important.

Working through your course

PLAY - Reality River (Interland - Google) Links to an external site.

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Now that you have played Reality river, ask yourself these questions whenever you visit a website for information. Why not visit one from your bookmarks, or a favourite one now and type the answers to the questions in your workbook:

  1. What is the purpose of the website? A good place to start is the “About” page, if the website has this.
  2. Does the website seem like it might be biased? Does it have information that seems to be prejudiced against something or someone? Does it have a lot of advertisements?
  3. What is the website’s top level domain? In other words, what does the website address end in? For example .gov, .edu, .org, or .com?
  4. Is the author reliable? Have you heard of them? Have you read other things they have written?
  5. Is the information current or up-to-date?

Review

Reflect upon what you have just covered. In your workbook, summarise:

  • What you have learnt
  • What you already knew
  • What surprised you
  • What you are curious to know more about.

 Support activity for this topic

For a deep dive on the rise of fake news, watch this YouTube video:

Extension activity for this topic

Complete the online tutorials “Digital Media Literacy” to learn more about evaluating information online. You can work through the tutorials and watch the relevant videos. You don’t have to sign up to do this.

COMPLETE - Digital Media Literacy (YouTube) Links to an external site.