Unit 6: Don’t be bashful- interrogate that primary research!
13 Lateral vs vertical reading (not testing on this material Fall 2023)
We are not covering lateral reading during the Fall 2023 course. Although it’s a stupendous skill, we found that some students got off course on their deconstruction paper assignment by employing lateral reading of websites, instead of analyzing and cross-comparing the articles themselves. However, this is a great skill, and the information is here in case you want to learn more on your own!
Up until this point we’ve been talking a lot about how we know things and how we know if we should believe things. We looked at some common ways people know things – and then the problems inherent in those everyday ways of knowing. We looked to “science” as a superior way of knowing (not surprisingly, as a researcher and university professor, I am firmly on #teamscience). We talked about the problems with science because, yes, science got probs (“it’s not an exact science!” “It’s not a perfect science!” bu-dum-dum-tsssss. I’m here all week!). We talked about science broadly but considering that this a class about social scientific research method…in communication…we focused a lot on…social scientific research in communication (spoiler alert) (just kidding) (at least I really hope that’s a “just kidding” for you). THEN. We really started to dive in to our quest – thinking hard about primary and secondary research, where to find it, how to evaluate it by outlet (journal), author, publication date. We talked about the first of our “hmm, ok, WHY was this written” elements (for translation? for some corporation?) We got into the process of having information presented, working our way back to the original primary research, and deconstructing from there. We’re going to spend a lot of time this semester examining more of these elements for review. In this Unit we’re going to start looking at journal articles section by section and deconstructing them. But first, we’re going to talk about lateral and vertical reading. This chapter will teach you information consumption strategies that will help you determine if you should believe it even if you can’t figure out how to find your way back to the original published primary research.
Here’s what your student textbook authors have to say:
Learning Objectives
What is the difference between lateral and vertical reading?
Lateral vs vertical reading
Lateral vs vertical reading. As the internet has become more and more widely used in our society, so has the concept of misinformation in news. Another term that has become popular recently is “fake news.” Even extremely professional-looking websites and articles may contain misinformation. Sometimes, these websites and journals have biased authors, or maybe were funded by groups with a particular interest- be it political or otherwise. So, how can we as consumers filter out the misinformation effectively?
Vertical and Lateral Reading are two different ways in which one can read articles and verify if it is misinformation or fact. Let’s first define what each is…
Vertical Reading
This would be the typical style of reading most people are used to:
- Checking how professional a site looks
- Reading the entire article and deciding if the information sounds correct
- Checking the citations
Lateral Reading
This type of reading is more effective to weed out misinformation
- Research the name of the website
- Research the author and their affiliation(s)
- Research the company and who owns the website
- Each time, check 3 to 5 sources before making judgment
Check for previous work: Look around to see whether someone else has already fact-checked the claim or provided a synthesis of research. [Some places to look: Wikipedia, Snopes, Politifact and NPR’s own Fact Check website.]
Go upstream to the source: Most Web content is not original. Get to the original source to understand the trustworthiness of the information. Is it a reputable scientific journal? Is there an original news media account from a well-known outlet? If that is not immediately apparent, then move to step 3.
Read laterally: Once you get to the source of a claim, read what other people say about the source (publication, author, etc.). The truth is in the network.
Circle back: If you get lost or hit dead ends or find yourself going down a rabbit hole, back up and start over.
You can learn more about lateral vs. vertical reading by clicking this link, and choosing to download the pdf or open the pdf in the browser.
This whole misinformation spread thing is a pretty big deal, and part of why it’s so important to doc that you become competent information consumers. Don’t believe us? Check out this study about how mass media disseminates news and how effective it is at spreading misinformation:
[class lecture 10.6.2020- Tim Arnold, Information Literacy Librarian, University of Iowa]
Part 1:
Part 2:
Slides: U7-lateral vs vertical reading
Got ideas for questions to include on the exam?
Click this link to add them!
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Unit 6: Don’t be bashful- interrogate that primary research!
- Yes, the answers are obvious. You should be thinking, hmm. Perhaps there will be a question like this on the exam and that's why she's being so obvious...? ↵