Web Literacy for Student Fact-Checkers
This text comprehensive in it's coverage of how to evaluate the vast reaches of the internet, at least in the scope of popular websites, social media, and some academic sources. The table of contents is well laid out and a user can quickly navigate to a section of interest. There are six sections to the 194 page document, a good amount to effectively cover evaluation of internet information, especially from an undergraduate or high school student perspective.
While this book covers several relevant topics in fact-checking the internet, it is lacking in depth of information in some sections, most notably in the sections related to academic publishing, journal impact factors, and using Google Scholar as a tool for checking author credibility. Though not a reason to throw out the next, research librarians be warned, additional resources will be needed to accurately cover evaluation of academic resources.
There is no index or glossary in this text. However, the nature of the information provided is not technical nor theoretical, so users will likely not require an index or glossary. The table of contents is robust enough to guide users to the section of interest.
The content of this text is error free, there are no glaring grammatical or spelling mistakes. It is written in easily digestible, conversational language, free from jargon or overly detailed explanations. Although the author does use some content examples from the 2016 presidential election, the author does not present false information or claim a political stance. All potentially biased information is included to illustrate various fact checking examples.
This text is heavily rooted in real-world internet stories, sensations and fact checking examples. Examples chosen will not quickly go into obsolescence, as they are used to illustrate how to go about fact checking internet sources. As new tools are developed or trends in website literacy arise, this resource will be easily modified with additional relevant sections.
The text is written in clear, concise, language, I have no concerns with the prose.
However, in some sections, the author's clarity is lacking. The language becomes too conversational and a reader or student not well versed in internet fact checking resources may become lost in the explanation. The best example of this lack of clarity can be found in Chapter 24, "Finding High Quality Secondary Sources", where the author attempts to explain finding additional scholarship on a topic in one short paragraph.
The book is consistent throughout in style, terminology, and layout.
This text is incredibly modular. It is only 194 pages yet it is divided into 6 sections and 42 chapters or topics. Each topic is very short and concise, making this resource a great choice for information literacy librarians or class room instructors who only wish to cover a specific aspect of fact checking. Some topics are exercises, which could easily stand alone.
This text is presented in a clear and logical fashion. My only concern is that the text abruptly ends with a mixed topic section. There is no conclusion or wrap up of the skills addressed in the text.
No concerns with the interface. Links provided in text worked, images were clear, and navigation was simple.
No grammatical errors.
No concerns with this text's cultural relevance.
This text is a valuable open resource for teaching students ways to fact check the internet. Although it is short in length and at times does not go incredibly deep into individual topics, it has many great examples which would be valuable, especially to librarian's in an information literacy session.