Web Literacy for Student Fact-Checkers

Reviewed by Michelle Walker, Liaison Librarian, University of Sunderland on 2/1/18

Comprehensiveness rating: 4

The aim of the book is to support students with fact checking online sources in a practical and engaging way and I think it achieves this aim well.
Much of the introduction resonated with my experiences of teaching students and this is a useful guide for librarians as well as students.
It does assume a basic knowledge of the internet and search engines, but I don't think this detracts from the value of the book as the vast majority of readers would have this knowledge.
The chapters of Going upstream and Reading laterally were especially good with clear examples and reasons why it is so important to verify what students are reading. Students are generally lacking in these skills and this book addresses these issues well for secondary school, college or undergraduate students.
I did feel the section on journal impact factors was vastly simplified and a little confusing, but this is a general text aimed at all students and not specific to researchers, so I can see the dilemma for the author.
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Content Accuracy rating: 5

The content is free from errors and I can see no issues with accuracy.

Relevance/Longevity rating: 5

The content of the book is very timely with the proliferation of 'fake news' or our awareness of it. It does use many examples from the 2016 American presidential election, but at the time this was written, this is a rich vein of examples to mine. Giving students the tools to be able to verify online content and be aware of bias and inaccurate reporting is essential in the age where a significant amount of information is consumed online, so I can see this being relevant for some time to come.

Clarity rating: 5

The text is written in a chatty, informal style which is generally easy to understand and read. Students would hopefully find this easy to understand and absorb. There was not any jargon use which was not explained satisfactorily e.g. 'reading laterally'. Again as time passes the examples will become less relevant, and so the clarity may lessen. So it would be useful to have more examples of a less political nature to broaden the appeal and longevity.

Consistency rating: 5

The text is consistent in its use of terminology.

Modularity rating: 5

The bitesize nature of the book does lend itself well to being embedded into courses/modules. Each section is concise and there are exercises which could be used to teach digital literacy skills.

Organization/Structure/Flow rating: 4

The chapters are bitesize and each leads onto each other. Presented in 6 parts with the contents broken down further into sections each detailing different tools and examples to verify facts.
It would have be nice to have a concluding section as the book ends rather unsatisfactorily with the unfinished chapters and no explanation of these or when they will be completed.

Interface rating: 5

No issues with the interface, all the text and images loaded without issue and were clear and legible.
The incomplete sections at the end of the book could be better explained as it first appears as if there is something missing, when in fact, this is the nature of this section.

Grammatical Errors rating: 5

No concerns regarding the grammar.

Cultural Relevance rating: 5

The examples are largely based on the 2016 American presidential election, although not offensive, it is quite monocultural and so from a UK perspective could be of less interest to readers. It will quickly date, so I would hope that new examples would be added.

This is an easily accessible text for students to read and understand the issues and around fake news, social media and online content and offers useful techniques to verify information.
It is also an informative text for Librarians involved in Digital Literacy to use as a jumping off point to create materials for their students or to use the exercises in teaching.