Lateral reading is the process of verifying what you are reading as you are reading it. When you open up a news article in your browser, open a second, empty tab. Use that second window to look up claims, author credentials and organizations that you come across in the article.
This concept was developed at Stamford University by the Civic Online Reasoning (COR) group.
More on strategies on identifying fake news and fact checking on the Albuquerque Public Library Fake News site
FastCheck
Annenberg Public Policy Center. For checking up on political claims.
Politifact
Researches the claims of politicians and checks their accuracy.
Snopes.com
Focuses on urban legends, news stories and memes.
The Washington Post Fact-Checker
Focused primarily on political facts.
Veracity (iPhone app)
To check image sources.
Lateral reading is an evaluation technique used by professional fact-checkers to determine the trustworthiness of online information. Watch the video to learn more about this technique.