Check Yourself with Lateral Reading: Crash Course Navigating Digital Information #3

Summary

In this Crash Course episode, John Green introduces the concept of lateral reading, a critical skill for evaluating digital information. He explains that all information has a source and purpose, which can influence its reliability. Using examples like the 'Stop City-Funded Internet' campaign and ALEC, Green illustrates how to uncover the true origins and motivations behind online content. He also suggests various resources for lateral reading, including newspapers, magazines, fact-checking websites, and even Wikipedia, emphasizing the importance of understanding the context behind information to combat misinformation.

Takeaways

• 📘 **Source Understanding**: Knowing the source of information is crucial for assessing its reliability.
• 👥 **Behind the Scenes**: Information is produced by teams of people with various roles, not just individuals.
• 🌐 **Media Landscape**: Media is not a monolith; it's a diverse industry with different viewpoints.
• 🔍 **Lateral Reading**: Instead of reading vertically, move horizontally across tabs to verify information.
• 🤔 **Question Motives**: Always ask 'who made this and why?' to understand potential biases.
• 📰 **Newspapers and Magazines**: Traditional media can be a starting point for lateral reading.
• 🔎 **Fact-Checking Websites**: Use fact-checking sites like Snopes and Politifact for verifying claims.
• 🌟 **Wikipedia's Role**: Despite its reputation, Wikipedia can be a good starting point for research.
• 🚫 **No Single Truth Source**: There's no one source that provides absolute truth; information is subjective.
• 💡 **Active Reading**: Engage in active reading practices to combat misinformation and disinformation.

Q & A

What is the main skill discussed in the Crash Course Navigating Digital Information episode presented by John Green?

The main skill discussed is the importance of understanding where information comes from and how to evaluate its reliability in the digital age.

What are some of the ways that Crash Course is funded, as mentioned in the script?

Crash Course is funded partly by support from Patreon, partly by advertisements, and partly by grants from organizations.

Who are the collaborators that helped create the video mentioned in the script?

The collaborators mentioned are MediaWise, the Poynter Institute, and the Stanford History Education Group.

What is the significance of understanding the motives behind the creation of information, as discussed in the script?

Understanding the motives behind the creation of information is significant because it helps to determine the reliability and potential biases of the information.

What is 'lateral reading' as introduced by John Green in the script?

Lateral reading is the practice of leaving a website to search for additional information from other sources to better understand and evaluate the original website's content.

Why is it important to look for additional information when evaluating a website's content, according to the script?

It is important to look for additional information because it helps to uncover potential conflicts of interest, biases, and to verify the reliability of the content.

What is an example of a deceptive campaign mentioned in the script, and how was its true origin discovered?

The 'Stop City-Funded Internet' campaign is an example of a deceptive campaign. Its true origin was discovered when someone noticed the file name of the site’s logo had 'Fidelity' in it, revealing that Fidelity Communications, a local internet provider, was behind it.

What are some of the sources recommended for lateral reading in the script?

Some sources recommended for lateral reading include newspapers, magazines, digital news sites, fact-checking websites like Snopes.com and Politifact.com, and Wikipedia.

Why does John Green argue that Wikipedia can be a good starting point for research, despite its reputation for being unreliable?

John Green argues that Wikipedia can be a good starting point for research because it is the largest general reference work on the web, and its articles are subject to editing standards, which can be rigorous, providing well-sourced and carefully written content.

What is the main takeaway from the script regarding the evaluation of information found online?

The main takeaway is that understanding who is sharing the information and why, combined with lateral reading practices, can help evaluate the reliability of online information and place it in its proper context.

Outlines

00:00

📚 Understanding Digital Information's Origin

John Green introduces the importance of understanding the source of digital information. He explains that Crash Course is produced by Complexly, a company he co-owns with his brother, and funded by Patreon supporters, advertisements, and grants. The video is also a collaboration with MediaWise, which is supported by Google and involves the Poynter Institute and the Stanford History Education Group. Green emphasizes the significance of knowing who produces information and their motives, illustrating this with examples from various media forms. He highlights the difficulty of discerning information sources, especially online, and introduces the concept of 'lateral reading' as a strategy to verify information by looking elsewhere for additional context.

05:01

🔎 Lateral Reading: Beyond Vertical Consumption

The concept of 'lateral reading' is explored as a method to critically engage with online content. Instead of trusting information at face value, viewers are encouraged to leave the site and search for more information. This lateral approach helps uncover the true sources and motivations behind the information. An example is given about the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC), where a deeper search reveals corporate memberships and conflicts of interest not apparent on the surface. Green suggests using various resources like newspapers, magazines, fact-checking websites, and even Wikipedia for lateral reading. He stresses that no single source is infallible, but understanding different viewpoints is crucial in evaluating information.

10:01

🌐 Embracing the Web's Nature through Lateral Reading

Green advocates for the use of Wikipedia as a starting point for research, despite its reputation for being editable by anyone and thus potentially unreliable. He argues that Wikipedia, with its editorial standards and citations, can offer a general overview of topics. The paragraph concludes by emphasizing the importance of lateral reading in the context of the web's non-linear nature. Green suggests that lateral reading is not just an additional task but a necessary skill to avoid being misled by misinformation. He encourages continuous practice of this reading strategy to better navigate and evaluate information on the internet.

Keywords

💡Crash Course

Crash Course is an educational video series on YouTube that covers a wide range of topics, from history to literature to science, in an engaging and fast-paced format. In the context of the video script, Crash Course is used to introduce the viewer to the importance of understanding digital information. The script mentions that Crash Course is a product of Complexly, indicating the production behind the educational content.

💡MediaWise

MediaWise is a project aimed at teaching students how to assess the accuracy of information they encounter online. It is mentioned in the script as a collaborator with Crash Course to help make the video. MediaWise is portrayed as a resource for learning about digital literacy and critical thinking in the digital age.

💡Lateral Reading

Lateral reading is a strategy for evaluating the reliability of online information by looking beyond the initial source and seeking out additional information from different tabs or sources. The script emphasizes the importance of lateral reading as a skill for navigating digital information and discerning reliable sources in a world where misinformation is prevalent.

💡Source

In the context of the video, a 'source' refers to the origin of information, whether it be a person, company, or organization. The script discusses the importance of understanding where information comes from to determine its reliability, using examples like the 'Stop City-Funded Internet' campaign to illustrate how sources can be obscured.

💡Algorithm

An algorithm, as mentioned in the script, is a set of rules or a process used to perform a certain task, often in computing and information processing. The script explains that even automated or algorithmically driven information, such as trending topics on social media, has a human origin, highlighting the importance of understanding the mechanisms behind digital content.

💡Patronage

Patronage, in the context of the video, refers to the support, often financial, given by patrons to artists or creators. The script mentions that Crash Course is partly funded by support from Patreon, which is a platform that allows fans to support content creators directly.

💡Bias

Bias refers to a prejudice or inclination towards one side or another, especially in relation to a particular topic or issue. The script discusses how understanding the motivations behind information production, such as bias, can help viewers evaluate the reliability of the content they consume.

💡Fact-Checking

Fact-checking is the process of verifying the accuracy of statements or information. The script mentions fact-checking websites like Snopes.com and Politifact.com as resources for lateral reading, emphasizing the importance of cross-referencing information to ensure its truthfulness.

💡Regulation

Regulation, as discussed in the script, refers to the control or management of an industry or system by a governing body. The example of internet service providers and ALEC illustrates how understanding the context of regulation can reveal potential conflicts of interest in the information presented.

💡Citations

Citations are references to the sources of information used in a work. The script highlights the importance of citations in establishing the credibility of information, noting that their presence can signal reliability, but also cautioning that they can be manipulated or missing.

💡Disinformation

Disinformation is deliberately false or misleading information that is created with the intent to deceive or mislead. The script warns about the dangers of disinformation and the importance of critical reading practices like lateral reading to combat its spread.

Highlights

Crash Course is a product of Complexly, a company owned by John Green and his brother, and is funded by Patreon supporters, advertisements, and grants.

MediaWise, created with support from Google, is a collaboration between the Poynter Institute and the Stanford History Education Group.

Understanding the source of information is crucial for assessing its reliability.

All information is produced by people and for a purpose, which can influence its content and presentation.

The motives behind information production, such as selling subscriptions or products, can affect the information's reliability.

The example of 'catfishing' illustrates the difficulty of identifying who is behind online information.

The 'Stop City-Funded Internet' campaign demonstrates how hidden interests can influence public opinion through seemingly grassroots campaigns.

Lateral reading involves leaving a website to search for additional information to verify the reliability of the content.

Reading websites vertically can be misleading as it often only shows what the creators want you to see.

The American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) example shows how lateral reading can reveal conflicts of interest.

Newspapers, magazines, and digital news sites can be useful for lateral reading, but it's important to be aware of their potential biases.

Fact-checking websites like Snopes.com and Politifact.com are resources for verifying information, but they are not infallible.

Wikipedia, despite its reputation, can be a good starting point for research if used critically and checked for citations.

The media is not a monolith; it is a diverse industry with different viewpoints, and lateral reading can help navigate this complexity.

Lateral reading is a proactive approach to evaluating information and can help combat the spread of misinformation and disinformation.

The world wide web requires a new kind of reading that involves using multiple sources to understand individual websites.

Reading laterally can be time-consuming but is essential for critically evaluating information in the digital age.

Transcripts

Hi I’m John Green, welcome to Crash Course Navigating Digital Information.

So, today, we are going to learn one of the most important skills of 21st century life,

and I don’t say that lightly.

So, you know my name and that this is an episode of Crash Course.

But there’s a lot that doesn’t tell you.

It doesn’t tell you, for instance, that Crash Course is a product of Complexly, a

company owned by my brother and me and funded partly by support from patreon, partly by

advertisements, and partly by grants from organizations.

It also doesn’t tell you who works on the show--a large team of producers, editors,

writers, illustrators, and more.

You’re looking at some of them now.

[camera pans to crew behind the camera] And as I mentioned in the previous videos,

the folks at MediaWise also helped us make this video.

MediaWise was created with support from Google, and it’s a collaboration between the Poynter

Institute, a non-profit journalism school, and the Stanford History Education Group,

a university-based research group.

All of this is helpful to know when navigating digital information, because understanding

where information came from helps us to understand if it’s reliable.

How do you even find a source in a world where no one has to cite sources, and what citations

exist are perpetually disappearing?

Well, to quote my friends Rhett and Link, Let’s talk about that.[1]

INTRO So, information doesn’t just appear, even

if it’s automated or driven by an algorithm.

A twitter bot, for instance, is not a person--but they were created by people, as are the algorithms

that declare what topics are trending in online discourse.

So all information is produced by someone, but it’s also produced for a purpose.

Like, newspapers are created by journalists and editors to inform the public about things

editors think they should know.

But of course, they also have to sell subscriptions and advertisements to support themselves.

Advertisements are created by companies to convince customers to buy or use their products.

Movies and books are created to entertain, or to stir up important cultural conversations,

or both.

The lines between these motives, of course, are not always clear.

Advertisements often feel informative, and sometimes seek to be informative-- like those

medicine ads that list 143 side effects in 10 seconds, because they are required to do

so by law.

And while journalism should seek to inform, journalists are humans, and they make choices

both about what to cover and how to cover it, choices we may not agree with.

Movies and books may exist to entertain and enlighten, but they can also exist to sell

things--it is no coincidence, for instance, that everyone in The Fault in Our Stars movie

uses Apple products.

So the first question we ask is who made this and why?

And we mustn’t oversimplify the answers.

Like, I wrote The Fault in Our Stars because I was inspired by my friend Esther, and also

because I wanted to explore whether a short life can be a full life, and also because

I thought people would read it--and pay for it.

The book was also a product of my editor and Penguin Random House, my publisher.

They also thought people would read and buy it.

None of those motivations negates any of the others.

But of course, understanding who is actually behind a project can be difficult, especially

online.

I mean, “catfishing” is now a verb because it’s so easy to pretend to be what you’re

not.

The “Stop City-Funded Internet” campaign is a good example of what I mean.

So, in early 2018, the city of West Plains, Missouri was working on a taxpayer-funded

municipal internet service project.

If successful, it would provide residents with cheaper high-speed internet.

And while the city was working on this plan, a website for the “Stop City-Funded Internet”

campaign popped up.[2] It claimed to be a grassroots community of local fiscal conservatives

against the plan.

The campaign site looked pretty sleek and professionally-designed.

It had a clear, stated mission and high-quality photography.

Oh, and also, a list of all the ways municipal internet service projects have failed.

And just by looking at the website, you wouldn’t have been able to tell who was really behind

that campaign, because it didn’t name names or list its leadership.

But in the end, someone did discover the brains behind the operation.

It was…of course...

Fidelity Communications, a local commercial internet provider that didn’t want to lose

customers.

And the only reason they came clean[3] was because a Missouri man noticed the file name

of the site’s logo had “Fidelity” in it.[4]

But most of the time, we don’t need to search source code to know more about who’s sharing

the information we’re consuming.

We just need to read differently.

So, we tend to read web sites like we read books or articles: we start at the top of

the page, look at the title, and scroll down from there.

We read vertically.

And many websites look really legitimate when you’re reading vertically, because you’re

only seeing what their creators want you to see.

And creators know what we think make websites look authoritative -- a well-designed logo,

references and citations, professional photography, no grammatical errors or typos.

And so when you read vertically, it is often impossible to distinguish reliable information

from unreliable.

But introducing other strategies into your reading -- like looking elsewhere for additional

information -- can help you find out a lot more.

When you’re on a new website, instead of staying put and taking their word for it,

you should just... leave.

Open a new tab and start looking for more information.

That’s called lateral reading.

It’s lateral because, instead of moving up and down, you’re moving from tab to tab.

Basically, what I’m saying is that when your browser looks like this, it can actually

be good news.

Like, here’s a website from the American Legislative Exchange Council, or ALEC.

This page from 2018[5] is about a back-and-forth in the federal government over regulating

internet service providers like Comcast, Verizon, and AT&T.

Regulating those providers could include setting the prices and rates for their services or

whether they’re allowed to collect tolls from websites or content creators, among other

things.

Apparently, ALEC is against government regulation of internet service providers.

So we want to know who ALEC is.

We can tell a few things by looking at their website.

Namely that this site is apparently /not/ run by Hailey Baldwin’s famous uncle.

Also the site does have a dot-org web address, which is often used by nonprofits.

The logo looks serious and kind of fancy.

The website is easy to use.

ALEC’s about page says it’s “America’s largest nonpartisan, voluntary membership

organization of state legislators dedicated to the principles of limited government, free

markets, and federalism.”

Its board of directors page lists many U.S. representatives and senators.

And if we stay on this page, it all seems... you know, kind of boring and standard.

But if you open a new tab and search ALEC -- ok, yeah, the first results are Alec Baldwin.

Hailey’s uncle.

But below that, and below ALEC’s website, lies their Wikipedia page and a website called

ALEC exposed dot org.

Towards the bottom of the first page of search results, there are news articles by websites

like The Atlantic and The Guardian.

These say that corporations and nonprofits are also members of ALEC.

We learn that one of ALEC’s stated goals is to bring corporate leaders and legislators

together so they can craft laws.

A search for “ALEC members” shows that AT&T, Comcast, and Verizon have all been members.[6]

Which means the original article about internet regulation has some, you know, big conflicts

of interest.

Internet service providers obviously have a huge financial incentive to fight regulation.

But that article doesn’t disclose that.

So in this case, lateral reading helped us find out who’s really behind information:

a huge group of lawmakers working with big corporations towards their common interests.

All right, so now that you understand the idea of lateral reading, you may be wondering

where you should go when you open that next tab.

There are plenty of online sources you can use to look into different organizations and

authors.

They may not be perfect, but they’re a good starting point if you’re just trying to

learn a little bit about a source of information.

Let’s go to the Thought Bubble.

Newspapers can be a good place to start.

Some of them have been around for decades or even centuries.

They have tons of information.

Traditionally, newspapers provided written information about current events printed daily

or weekly.

Today, many newspapers have turned into digital media companies that publish news online daily

in a variety of formats.

Some focus on international or national news and others focus on local news.

Magazines and digital news sites are useful for lateral reading, too.

However it’s important to note that many online news organizations have their own points

of view.

Sometimes these are explicit liberal or conservative political leanings.

But sometimes they’re much harder to pinpoint, like a mashup of their contributors’ own

interests and perspectives.

Like, a website written specifically about comics for and by women might cover the new

Captain Marvel trailer differently than a site with all male writers would, for

instance.

We’ll talk more about authorial perspective in our next episode.

Fact-checking websites can also be an excellent resource.

Sites like Snopes.com and Politifact.com are well-respected fact-checking sites created

by researchers and journalists

with the goal of fact-checking: articles,

public statements, and even social media posts.

Of course that doesn’t mean they’re never wrong,

because they’re also created by humans, but they do strive to be right.

But like every resource, fact checking websites are just one tool in the tool box.

There is no magic arbiter of truth.

Thanks, Thought Bubble!

So, to reiterate, no newspaper or news site is infallible.

All of this is created by humans, and humans make mistakes constantly.

All of us.

Our modern media landscape is very difficult to navigate and that has sowed distrust between

the public and the quote unquote mainstream media.

But I think there are two important things to remember here.

First, “the media” does not exist.

It’s not a monolith.

There are no secret meetings between every reporter and editor and photographer in the

world about what to report.

It is a very large and diverse industry made up of individuals with vastly different viewpoints.

But, secondly, it is possible to take those different viewpoints into account when reading

laterally and checking information for yourself.

Now, having waded into controversial waters, I’m about to dive into them.

There’s another resource you can use while reading laterally.

One you’ve been told not to use by teachers and parents and other adults.

But I’m not like them, I’m young, and...what’s that Stan?

Oh.

Apparently I am like them.

Nonetheless, I am here to tell you that you SHOULD USE WIKIPEDIA.

Wikipedia can be a very good place to start your research.

You’ve definitely been told at some point that it’s an unreliable source or that anyone

can just edit at a whim.

Wikipedia can be wrong.

It often is.

Many articles CAN be edited by anyone, but Wikipedia is also the largest general reference

work on the web, and its articles /are/ subject to editing standards.

Some of them are quite rigorous, in fact.

So it can be a great place to find a general overview of a topic.

Now, not every article meets Wikipedia’s editorial standards--as many articles say

/above/ the article--but the ones that do are well-sourced and carefully written, and

if you scroll down to the bottom of any wikipedia page, you should find citations that work.

We’re gonna talk about Wikipedia in a future episode, but for now I just wanna say this:

There is no, like, single source on the Internet, or off the Internet for that matter

There’s no secret way to understand the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the

truth.

I think we sometimes forget this, so I want to state it clearly: Information is made by

people--flawed, biased, imperfect people.

But sometimes we conclude that because no source is inherently objective, all information

must be equally unreliable, and that is dead wrong.

No matter what you’re thinking about or trying to learn about, understanding who is

sharing the information, and why, can help you to evaluate what you’re reading and

place it in its proper context.

And lateral reading can really help with that.

I know it feels like extra work--the entering of search terms, looking through sources,

and so on--but I’ve been trying this for the last several weeks, and it has genuinely

worked for me.

Instead of asking why read laterally, I think we should consider what we lose when we don’t

read laterally, when we passively scroll through information feeds and accept what seems true

and dismiss what seems wrong.

Reading that way gives misinformation and disinformation more power.

It allows people to hijack your consciousness, and it also makes you part of the problem.

The world wide web demands we utilize a new kind of reading to evaluate information, one

that is very different from how we read books or newspapers.

There’s no beginning and no end to the web.

Vertical reading doesn’t work because it’s not vertical.

It’s a web.

So, we often need to leave individual websites to understand that website...by using other

websites.

It will get simpler over time and with practice.

Once, you didn’t know how to read vertically.

So, we’re going to keep practicing.

I’ll see you next time.

For this series, Crash Course has teamed up with MediaWise, a project out of the Poynter

Institute that was created with support from Google.

The Poynter Institute is a non-profit journalism school.

The goal of MediaWise is to teach students how to assess the accuracy of information

they encounter online.

The MediaWise curriculum was developed by the Stanford History Education Group based

on civic online reasoning research that they began in 2015.

If you’re interested in learning more about MediaWise and fact-checking, you can visit

@mediawisetips on Instagram.

________________ [1] https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC4PooiX37Pld1T8J5SYT-SQ

[2] https://web.archive.org/web/20180129214112/https://stopcityfundedinternet.com/ [3]https://www.westplainsdailyquill.net/features/business/article_589ec380-18a4-11e8-b515-43970aabc869.html

[4] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kcDPOvFdUcE [5]https://www.alec.org/article/democrats-hope-to-restore-heavy-handed-internet-regulations-through-senate-vote/

[6] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_members_of_the_American_Legislative_Exchange_Council