23 The SIFT Method: Evaluating Web Sources
Introduction
In both your research assignments and personal life, you need to locate information online. Unlike library resources, web-based content (e.g., web pages, YouTube videos, social media posts) is usually not vetted by scholars or other professionals with relevant expertise. High-quality, relevant information can feel difficult to find amidst confusing, misleading, or even malicious content.
Increasingly, poor-quality and incorrect information is available in formats that look appealing. They’ve been recently updated, they have professional-seeming graphics, websites, or videos, and they use language that mimics reputable organizations or people. As we mentioned in this week’s intro, older markers of reliable content (recency, .org or .gov domains, a lack of spelling or grammar errors) are not exclusive to well-researched material. This content shift means that you cannot just look at a domain name or how professional/up-to-date a website looks to determine whether it’s accurate.
Search tip: Do NOT rely on the following criteria to decide whether a source is appropriate for research:
- Flashy and/or professional images, graphics, or video quality
- The domain name (e.g., .org)
- The About page from the organization’s own website (helpful to read, but sometimes provides misleading information or obscures an organization’s real purpose, especially regarding controversial topics)
- Well-written text without spelling/grammar errors
Not relying on easy visual cues can make vetting online information seem overwhelming. However, you can’t just skip using digital resources either. The Internet is still an important gateway to all kinds of information, including complex and/or controversial topics. How can you be sure you’re getting information or advice from a reputable source?
The SIFT Method
For evaluating digital content, we recommend the SIFT method. Developed by researcher Mike Caulfield, the SIFT method allows you to quickly and reliably evaluate information online by relying on the defining feature of the Internet – its easy interconnectedness to other sources.
The steps of the SIFT method are:
- Stop.
- Investigate the source.
- Find better coverage.
- Trace claims back to the original source.
Watch each of the four videos below for an introduction to the SIFT method. These videos are short, straightforward, and practical. In other words, for a short time investment, you can gain essential skills for navigating the modern world.
Step 1: STOP
Step 2: INVESTIGATE
Leaving a source to investigate its reputation from other sources/sites is called lateral reading. This is different from vertical reading, which involves evaluating information or cues from the source itself.
STEP 3: FIND BETTER COVERAGE
Search tip: In addition to finding coverage from reputable news outlets, try a fact-checking website like Snopes.
STEP 4: TRACE CLAIMS BACK TO THE ORIGINAL SOURCE
To recap, the goal of the SIFT method is to use the structure of the Internet to our advantage. We leave the original source to explore the creator’s reputation (lateral reading), see if other reputable sources are covering that topic the same way, and identify the actual originator of the information. For a more detailed, but still accessible, discussion of these strategies, we recommend Verified: How To Think Straight, Get Duped Less, and Make Better Decisions About What To Believe Online (2023) by Mike Caulfied and Sam Wineburg (Find at UMSL).
Key Takeaways
- Because both reliable and unreliable (and sometimes, malicious) sources can have professional websites/videos/graphics, “reputable” domains such as .org, and well-edited recent content, you cannot rely on these cues alone to determine whether a source is reliable.
- The SIFT method relies on using the interconnected web to leave the original source to:
- explore a person or organization’s reputation from other sources
- see whether other well-known sources are covering a topic in the same way (or at all)
- trace a quote, claim, etc. back to the person who originally said it
