Sifting through misinformation

Mike Caulfield teaches digital information literacy at the Washington State University in Vancouver. He has a very useful web site (blog) for our current crisis (or anyone doing reseach for a speech) titled Sifting Through the Coronavirus Pandemic. SIFT is an acronym for:

“Stop! Investigate the source. Find better coverage. Trace claims, quotes and media to the original context.”

Mike also has a free ebook from 2017 titled Web Literacy for Student Fact-Checkers …and other people who care about facts that you can either read online or download as an Acrobat .pdf file. He describes four moves:

“Check for previous work: Look around to see if someone else has already fact-checked the claim or provided a synthesis of research.

Go upstream to the source: Go ‘upstream’ to the source of the claim. Most web content is not original. Get to the original source to understand the trustworthiness of the information.

Read laterally: Read laterally. Once you get to the source of a claim, read what other people say about the source (publication, author, etc.). The truth is in the network.

Circle back: If you get lost, hit dead ends, or find yourself going down an increasingly confusing rabbit hole, back up and start over knowing what you know now. You’re likely to take a more informed path with different search terms and better decisions.”

At Inside Higher Ed on August 14, 2019 there was an article by John Warner titled Getting beyond the CRAAP Test: a conversation with Mike Caulfield. It mentioned another resource from Mike, the Check, Please! Starter Course.

My lateral reading about coronavirus usually involves looking at what Dr. David Gorski has discussed. For example, at Respectful Insolence on April 28, 2020 he had a long rant titled Drs. Dan Erickson and Artin Massihi: promoting dangerously bogus pseudo-epidemiology about COVID-19. At Science-Based Medicine on May 4, 2020 there was another article titled COVID-19: Out-of-control science and bypassing science-based medicine with a section on Bad epidemiology.

But for fun I also follow the headlines over at Wonkette. There was an article by Evan Hurst on April 28, 2020 titled If your dumbass MAGA uncle watched Tucker Carlson last night, you need to read this. It linked to an earlier article by Barbara Feder Ostrov at Cal Matters on April 27, 2020 titled Cue the debunking: Two Bakersfield doctors go viral with dubious COVID test conclusions. Barbara mentioned but did not link to a very angry joint statement by two organizations: 

“The American Academy of Emergency Medicine (AAEM) and the American College of Emergency Physicians (ACEP) jointly and emphatically condemn the recent opinions released by Dr. Daniel Erickson and Dr. Artin Massihi. These reckless and untested musings do not speak for medical society and are inconsistent with current science and epidemiology regarding COVID-19. As owners of local urgent care clinics, it appears these two individuals are releasing biased, non-peer reviewed data to advance their personal financial interests without regard for the public’s health.
COVID-19 misinformation is widespread and dangerous. Members of AAEM and ACEP are first-hand witnesses to the human toll that COVID-19 is taking on our communities. AAEM and ACEP strongly advise against using any statements of Drs. Erickson and Massihi as a basis for policy and decision making.”

The image of a flour sifter came from Wikimedia Commons.