You might wonder, as an undergraduate, am I qualified to assess information from professors and professionals? How can I evaluate the information they produce? There are two key concepts to keep in mind: filtering and cherry-picking.
| Filtering | Just as people filter out harmful or undesirable elements, in research, it's crucial to avoid being misled by false or unsupported information that could lead to incorrect conclusions. University students should learn methods to assess the authority of information. |
| Cherry-Picking | Similar to how farmers select the best cherries from a tree, in research, it's important to ensure that the focus of your work isn't overshadowed by irrelevant ideas, even if they come from credible and reliable sources. Undergraduates should learn how to determine the relevance of information to their research |
With this brief introduction to evaluating sources, you can utilize a list of five key criteria: AAOCC (Authority, Accuracy, Objectivity, Currency, and Coverage). These criteria can be applied to assess all types of information sources, including books/eBooks, journal articles, web pages, blogs, videos, audio recordings, and social media posts.
The internet is filled with misleading information. From the fake news that inundated Facebook during the U.S. Presidential Race to the recent incident where two elderly individuals in Macau were arrested for spreading false information about casualties during Typhoon Hato (天鴿), fake news comes in many forms. Some stories, like the Typhoon Hato death toll shared by the two elderly individuals, are entirely fabricated.
However, other fake news can mislead people through a process known as circular reporting. Circular reporting, or false confirmation, occurs when a piece of news appears to be verified by multiple independent sources, but in reality, they all originate from the same fake source.
You can learn more about "circular reporting" in the TED-Ed clip below.