1. Becoming a Fact-Checker
2. Fake news biased reporting and untruths are part of our information landscape. Sometimes it is easy to spot something that is untrue or false but sometimes it is not easy to tell the difference.
3. Some articles and websites even baffle or confuse the most expert researchers -- like historians and college professors. But there is one group of researchers called fact-checkers that rarely get fooled. These are the folks that make sure that what a newspaper magazine or website publishes is true and accurate.
4. So what do fact-checkers do to check the credibility of an article they come across? Well they have a few tricks up their sleeve. One thing they don’t do is spend a lot of time closely reading the resource they are evaluating. That’s right! They don’t spend all that much time reading an article from a website without knowing if that site can be trusted.
5. They don’t spend all that much time looking at the “About Us” section or looking for a list of references or even checking the authors’ credentials. Instead they research what others have written about the site the organization or the author. They know that what others say about an organization or a publication is often more reliable that what the site says about itself.
6. This often includes searching for information about an organization or publication.
7. But how does the fact-checker know if what others are saying about a site is credible? Well they consider three important criteria: process aim and expertise.
8. Let’s first look at process. Fact-checkers know that reliable sources have a process for checking facts. Well-respected newspapers like The Wall Street Journal and The New York Times employ fact-checkers who ensure that reporters have gotten their facts right and corrected any mistakes.
9. Scholarly journals don’t have fact checkers but they do have a group of scholars or peers that read evaluate and decide if something should be published. So if you come across something from a respected newspaper or a well-known academic journal you can be fairly certain that what you are reading is accurate.
10. Second fact-checkers check for expertise and they know that who is deemed an expert depends on the context. A medical doctor is an expert in medicine while an English professor is likely an expert in Shakespeare. But fact-checkers know that not all experts are PhDs or MDs. A hairstylist is an expert on which haircuts look best while a second grader could very well be an expert on playground activities at lunch time.
11. And lastly fact-checkers know that all organizations and publications have specific aims that vary greatly from one publication to another. For example a tabloid like The National Enquirer aims to entertain and make money. The more salacious news they publish the more money they make. Their aim is not to get the facts right. Contrast this to a website like Politico. Yes they have a business model but their main aim is to report accurately what happens in Washington DC.
12. So when you come across a publication consider its aim and how that relates to their reliability. For example if you come across an article on drug addiction consider the source and their aim. Is that article published by a recovery center that is aimed at enrolling patients in their recovery program or is the article published in a medical journal reporting on a new experimental treatment for addiction?
13. Creating a search strategy
14. For much of your academic work you will be required to use library databases. These databases work a little differently from search engines like Google. So this video will cover some strategies for using library databases effectively.
15. These days we are all pretty good at searching the Internet and we can use Google to find just about anything — reviews of our favorite TV shows the latest weather report or biographical information about a famous person -- all in just minutes. We know how to do this because it’s so easy — put in a few keywords and in seconds we have exactly what we need.
16. But being a good Google user doesn’t mean you can easily search the resources needed for your academic work — resources like databases and library search tools. And if your instructor says you need scholarly sources Google is not going to help you much.
17. That’s because library databases work differently than search engines like Google. Using a database means you are going to have to spend some time thinking about how and what you are going to search. That’s your search strategy and coming up with one can you save you a lot of time and effort.
18. One study found that students with a good search strategy spent 50% less time searching for sources than students who just put in a few random words. Students that use a search strategy think about the words they are going to use and the words they aren’t going to use and how they’re going to put them together.
19. Let’s say you’ve decided to write a paper on this question: “How does being bilingual affect children’s brains?” You can take the path of least resistance and copy and paste the question itself into a library database — but that will most likely give you poor results. Or you could take a few minutes and come up with a search strategy.
20. Let’s give it a try. First we want to pick out only those words that are directly related to our research question and eliminate the ones that are not going to help us much.
21. "How" "does" and "being" are not words specific to our research question so we’re not going to use them.
22. What about "affect?" It could help but it could also appear in a lot of information not directly related to our question so let’s eliminate it for now.
23. That leaves us with three great keywords: "bilingual" "children" and "brain."
24. Now we’re ready to put those words together. Unlike Google which places an invisible AND between all your keywords in many library databases you must add the word AND between your keywords.
25. So we need to change "bilingual children brain" to "bilingual AND children AND brain."
26. So we’re done right? Not so fast. Library databases also use another important word to combine key terms and that word is the magical OR. OR can add so much to your search!
27. As you know there are many different terms you can use for the same idea or concept. You can use OR to include these other words — words like synonyms related words and examples.
28. So for the word “children” we could also use the words child kid and childhood. And for “brain” we could also use a related word like cognitive.
29. Now we need to put these together with our other words.
30. Library databases do this with the use of OR and parentheses. Anytime you use an OR you want to make sure you nest the related words in parentheses.
31. In this example you are telling the database to look for resources that include the word bilingual AND the word children or childhood plus the word brain or cognitive.
32. There really is no limit to how many words you can use for example: “bilingual AND (children OR childhood) AND (brain OR cognitive OR memory OR learning).”
33. So next time you need to use a library database save yourself time effort and frustration by following these steps.
34. Enter only those words that are directly related to concepts in your research question.
35. Eliminate words that are not relevant.
36. Come up with synonyms and other words related to your keywords.
37. Put them together with ANDs and ORs.
38. This will give you results that are much more relevant than if you just pasted the question into the search box.
39. Types of materials
40. When you're searching for information for your academic work it helps to understand the difference between primary and secondary sources and between popular and scholarly sources.
41. When you search for any information you think a bit about what you’re missing or where your information gap is. That helps you determine where to search for information and how to search for it.
42. If you don’t know how your best friend from high school is doing you look them up on Facebook. If you don’t know how to cook that great dish you had on your vacation in Peru last year you probably look for a recipe on Google.
43. But what about research for your courses? Should you use Google or something else? Well before you decide you need to figure out what information you're missing and what types of information you need. After that you’re ready to start looking.
44. Do you need a primary source? Primary sources provide evidence of events and can help answer questions about the past or the present. Questions like what did men’s fashion look like in the 1800s? Or how did newspapers cover the historic meeting between the president of the US and the leader of North Korea?
45. A primary source can also be an original work of art. The movie The Godfather is a primary source as is a poem by Langston Hughes. Often primary sources are personal and provide first-hand accounts of events.
46. Some examples of primary sources are: a photograph of the University of Arizona women’s swim team from 1931 and letters sent from a new Arizona immigrant to her family back home. And even a tweet from a politician can be a primary source. Really a primary source is anything from a firsthand account that you use as evidence.
47. Do you need secondary sources? A secondary source is based on primary sources and interprets analyzes or describes them. Secondary sources can help you understand new or different ideas about primary sources. One of Shakespeare's plays is a primary source but an analysis of the play written by a scholar would be a secondary source.
48. Secondary sources can be used as primary sources in some situations. A magazine article is usually a secondary source but if you’re interested in researching attitudes toward women in the 1950s then those articles become primary sources. Indeed almost any publication can be a primary source depending on how you are using it.
49. What about an interview of an eyewitness about a bridge that collapsed from a newspaper article written yesterday? That's a primary source because it’s a first-hand account. And it's a popular source.
50. Some examples of popular sources are magazine articles online news sites and YouTube videos. These are aimed at a general audience and are written in everyday language. They may even have a list of references but that alone doesn’t make them scholarly.
51. Scholarly sources are written for an academic audience and aimed at other researchers in the field. An astronomer conducts a study and writes an article for other astronomers.
52. Scholarly sources are often peer-reviewed. That means that a group of scholars from the same field of study have reviewed the article and evaluated it for publication. Another researcher could use that paper to inform their own research. As a student you may use it to help you better understand a topic.
53. Remember each type of information is created with a different process to fulfill different needs. For example a Tweet is created in a few minutes by a single person. We often use tweets to connect with people or catch up on the day’s headlines. A news article is written by a journalist who may spend days or weeks investigating and writing a story. We read these stories to inform us and help us make better decisions. A scholarly paper created by a group of specialized researchers may take months to research and write. We read those to better understand a topic and to inform future research.
54. So where should you start looking for these different information resources? Well that depends on what you need. Let's say you’re working on a multimedia presentation on the architecture of Tucson. If you need background information you could start by using the library to find a book.
55. What if you need some primary sources like historical drawings from a local architect? You can find primary sources in many places — online at a museum and in the library. The University of Arizona Special Collections has thousands of primary sources about Arizona the university and the Southwest.
56. If you need an analysis of the effects of affordable housing in the Tucson area you should use a library database to find a scholarly source. And if you need to know the number of homes in Tucson with solar power you need to find a statistic.
57. Many popular sources of information are available for free on the web but others require you to pay for access. Often your library will have access to these sources so that you won’t have to pay for them.
58. Scholarly sources are often published in costly academic journals. You can access these sources for free using one of the library databases.
59. So before you start looking for information think about what type of information you need and where the best place to look for that information is.
60. Google and Wikipedia are great places to start. But the University of Arizona Library is another essential place to look especially when you need primary and scholarly sources.
61. Rethinking your search
62. Searching for information in library resources is often like exploring a new land. You often won’t find what you're looking for the first time you search. You’ll go down some wrong paths run into trouble turn around and start over before you find what you need.
63. Using a library database for the first time can be a little frustrating. Unlike Google where you just need to type a few words or a sentence in library databases you often need to change your original keywords. Sometimes you do this in Google too. You type in a few words take look at your results and if you don’t see what you need you change things up a bit. Maybe you take out a word replace one or add a new one until you find exactly what you need.
64. Remember library databases contain millions of articles papers books videos and more. Chances are they have what you need but finding that information depends on the type of resource you are using and the type of information you need.
65. If you are searching for background information you can probably use broad and general language and find what you need pretty easily.
66. But if you are looking for a scholarly source in a library database you will need to use more technical language like that used by researchers in the discipline.
67. As you scan your results take a look at some of the words in the titles of articles or abstracts and see if you can add those to your search. Often researchers use specialized terms that others in the field are familiar with.
68. Your results can also tell you a little bit about how a database is interpreting what you entered. This can help you decide how to change your search so that the database gives you more relevant results.
69. For example let’s say that you’re searching for information about social media use and student grades.
70. But in your results you see the word “social” and the word “media” in different sentences far apart from each other. You’re not getting results that are actually about social media.
71. When that happens you can do your search again this time with quotation marks around the words “social media.” This tells the database to search for the