It is the kind of literacy that enables the identification and evaluation of digital and media content in order for it to be critically analyzed and intelligently used (Kellner, & Share, 2007).
A very effective course of action, in order to evaluate any kind of information coming from digital sources from the open web (blogs, websites, social media, etc) is the steps stated bellow as are explained by M. Caulfield (2017):
- Check for previous work: Look around to see if someone else has already fact-checked the claim or provided research on the matter: Sometimes, the necessary fact checking is already done by someone for us.
Fact checking websites:
Α) Factchecker.gr
Β) Ellinikahoaxes.gr
- Go upstream to the source: Most web content is not original. Get to the original source to understand the trustworthiness of the information.
- Read laterally: Once the source of a claim is found, read what other people say about the source (publication, author, etc.). The truth is in the network.
- Circle back: In the case of confusion, frustration and lack of results, the best course of action is to back up and start over knowing all the gained information from the previous steps. The new path is most likely to be better informed with different search terms and better decisions.
