SIFT is an evaluation strategy developed by digital literacy expert Michael Caulfield (Washington State University Vancouver) to help you judge whether online content can be trusted for credible and reliable information. The SIFT strategy is quick, simple, and can be applied to various kinds of online content: social media posts, memes, statistics, videos, images, news articles, scholarly articles, etc.
SIFT stands for:
STOP
INVESTIGATE THE SOURCE
FIND BETTER COVERAGE
TRACE CLAIMS, QUOTES, AND MEDIA BACK TO THEIR ORIGINAL CONTEXT
Note: This SIFT method guide was adapted from Michael Caulfield's "Check, Please!" course. The canonical version of this course exists at http://lessons.checkplease.cc. The text and media of this site, where possible, is released into the CC-BY, and free for reuse and revision. We ask people copying this course to leave this note intact, so that students and teachers can find their way back to the original (periodically updated) version if necessary. We also ask librarians and reporters to consider linking to the canonical version.
As the authors of the original version have not reviewed any other copy's modifications, the text of any site not arrived at through the above link should not be sourced to the original authors.
SIFT is a quicker, more effective way to evaluate online content than traditional “checklist” approaches (such as "the CRAAP Test").
Some checklist questions you might ask yourself when initially arriving at a webpage:
In today’s world, asking yourself these kinds of questions is no longer enough. Why?
Additionally, checklist methods often require students to evaluate too many different types of criteria, and can take dozens of steps (and too much time) to check a single source.
"Want to put all of your evaluation skills to the test in a fun game? Play Fakeout!, an interactive lesson that will challenge your ability to verify the claims and stories you find online.
To play Fakeout!, click here. (Direct URL: https://newsliteracy.ca/fakeOut/)
Play all the way through--incorporating the 4 moves of the SIFT method when necessary--and try to determine the validity of the claims/stories presented. Can you sort fact from fiction?"
Source: CIVIX (UMW Libraries)
