Much of what appears on the internet has been stripped of context. As information is shared across different platforms by a variety of people, it can be harder to determine its validity. You might find a news story that was shared by one of your favorite influencers on TikTok. Do you believe what they shared? You may or may not consider them a reliable source for news stories but, regardless of your opinion, the next step would be to trace the claim, story, quote, or media back to the source, so you can see it in its original context and get a sense if the version you saw was accurately presented.
Click Through and Find
When trying to find the original source of the information you're assessing, skim through the webpage you're looking at to see if there are any clues that lead back to the original source. You can search for keywords or relevant terms on the webpage itself by using CTRL-F (or CMD-F on a Mac) to bring up a search box. Are there any links included you could "click through" that will help you trace the information back to its origin? Is there a date listed identifying when the article was shared? Check out this example to see this strategy in action.
Reverse Image Search
Sometimes the content in question is an image. One way to find the origin of an image is to do a reverse image search using Google's image search tool or a website like TinEye.
The information on this research guide is adapted from Mike Caulfield's materials with a CC BY 4.0 license, CTRL-F Verification Skills Module, presented by CIVIX, and Caulfield, M., & Wineburg, S. S. (2023). Verified: How to think straight, get duped less, and make better decisions about what to believe online. The University of Chicago Press.