some things you read or see on the internet are obviously true or false but most information falls somewhere in between make sure to evaluate the credibility of everything you read or see online and always pause to check its credibility before you share the content with others using the 5ws to evaluate online information step by step can help you decide if you should trust a source knowing how to evaluate different types of content and determine their credibility is a valuable skill for your education and your personal and professional lives the ability to identify the difference between
credible and non-credible sources helps you filter the information you find online make smart decisions based on your findings and developed informed opinions about important topics when you read information closely and think critically about it you become a better student and citizen who is able to evaluate current events and historical issues thoughtfully when you use credible sources you enhance your own credibility be mindful of what you read or see on the internet whether a written article a video or any other type of content always check for credibility the web is full of millions of web pages
containing lots of information for us to access but we should always keep in mind that anyone can create content on the web so you can't trust everything you come across there are a few strategies you can use to judge whether a web page is reliable and if the information you find is fact or false first think about who published the information and why while some publishers want to share factual information online others are interested in making money becoming popular online spreading their personal beliefs or even spreading viruses to damage other people's computers avoid relying on
information from biased sources for example if you find an article that states that everyone should purchase hats because the weather is getting worse and then you see that the author of the article is a company that sells hats it is likely that the publisher of the article is sharing biased information bias isn't always bad personal bloggers who publish articles to share their own thoughts and ideas may present valuable information however you should be aware of the bias of any author and know when something is opinion versus fact next check the domain the type of domain
a website is hosted on can tell you a bit about the type of content you're viewing websitesendingin.gov are typically official government websites websites ending in dot edu are typically published by educational institutions and websites ending in dot org are organizations it's easier to obtain a dot-com domain name which is used for commercial websites based on the domain type you can judge how accurate or biased the content might be next check the date an article that talks about the most populated city in the world might not be reliable if it was published in 1999 a lot
has changed since then always be sure to check the publish date of a website or article to determine if it's current and relevant for your needs finally keep in mind that you should always check multiple sources avoid relying on a single source for all of your information the more sources you use the easier it is to verify the accuracy of the information you find keep these strategies in mind while you browse the web to make sure the information you use is reliable and accurate you
