The Debunking Handbook 2020
by Stephan Lewandowsky, John Cook, et al. · Skeptical Science / Center for Climate Change Communication
Free 19-page consensus guide by Stephan Lewandowsky, John Cook and 20 other misinformation researchers. It covers why corrections often fail to stick, prebunking and inoculation, how rare the backfire effect is, and the fact-myth-fallacy-fact format for debunking.
More resources on Media Literacy & Misinformation
The Spread of True and False News Online
Study in Science of about 126,000 rumor cascades on Twitter from 2006 to 2017. Falsehoods spread farther, faster and deeper than truth, especially political ones. The effect came from human sharing, linked to novelty, not from bots. Answers the topic's 'how misinformation spreads' question with primary evidence rather than commentary.
Verification Handbook: For Disinformation and Media Manipulation
Free online handbook (third edition, 2020) edited by Craig Silverman, with chapters by working investigators. It covers checking social media accounts, bots and inauthentic activity, images, deepfakes, closed messaging groups, websites, ads, and cross-platform information operations, plus six case studies. The step up from judging sources to investigating content and actors: image, video and account verification at a professional level.
Lateral Reading and the Nature of Expertise: Reading Less and Learning More When Evaluating Digital Information
Study comparing how professional fact-checkers, PhD historians and Stanford undergraduates judged unfamiliar websites. The fact-checkers left the site and read laterally across other tabs, reaching better-supported conclusions in less time. This is the empirical basis for lateral reading. Shows why lateral reading works and why checklist approaches fail, using think-aloud evidence.
Verified: How to Think Straight, Get Duped Less, and Make Better Decisions about What to Believe Online
The single definitive book on the topic's core skill set, grounded in the authors' own studies of professional fact-checkers. Guide by SIFT creator Mike Caulfield and Stanford researcher Sam Wineburg. It covers lateral reading, judging sources and experts, tracing images and videos, reading search results, and why critical ignoring beats deep reading. Includes many worked examples.
SIFT (The Four Moves)
The canonical free reference for the method, readable in 10 minutes and worth rereading as a quick guide. Mike Caulfield's original description of SIFT: Stop, Investigate the source, Find better coverage, and Trace claims, quotes and media to their original context. Short, Creative Commons licensed, and the basis for many university information-literacy programs.
Crash Course Navigating Digital Information
Ten short episodes hosted by John Green covering fact-checking, lateral reading, judging who is behind a source, using Wikipedia, evaluating evidence, photos and videos, data and infographics, click restraint, and social media feeds. The best free on-ramp: about two hours of video that teaches the moves that research shows work (lateral reading, click restraint) rather than checklists. Well suited to a first pass before the book.