VCU news

By Sian Wilkerson

Mike Caulfield, whose groundbreaking work has explored misinformation and disinformation in the election process, will visit Virginia Commonwealth University in October to deliver VCU Libraries’ 2024 Social Justice Lecture. The topic is “Rumors of Theft: Navigating Election Integrity Discourse Online.”

As an information literacy expert, Caulfield has worked as both a research scientist, studying the spread of online rumors and misinformation during elections and crisis events, and as an educational researcher and practitioner. His presentation at VCU will outline how citizens can develop the necessary skills to participate fully in American democracy, protect truth and improve civic engagement and fair consideration of issues.

“We all need to be engaged in examining election discourse and integrity,” said Irene Herold, Ph.D., VCU’s dean of libraries and university librarian. “Caulfield’s research-tested approach is a welcome addition to critical thinking.”

The presentation – part of a larger VCU Libraries information campaign on fact-checking and information literacy in the fall semester called #VetYourSources – will be held Tuesday, Oct. 15, at 7 p.m. in the James Branch Cabell Library Lecture Hall, 901 Park Ave. in Richmond, and will be available via Zoom. Registration is free and open to all through www.support.vcu.edu/event/SocialJusticeLecture2024.

To identify fakes and falsehoods, propaganda or errors, Caulfield provides a framework for action, explaining that no matter one’s values or views, individuals should take at least minimal action to evaluate the sources and claims that show up on their screens. His research and his 2023 book, “Verified: How to Think Straight, Get Duped Less, and Make Better Decisions about What to Believe Online,” shows readers how to do that – quickly – using proven web search methods. 

Caulfield is a researcher and creator of the SIFT methodology – “Stop,” “Investigate the source,” “Find better coverage” and “Trace claims to the original context” – and his approach goes beyond the concept of “critical thinking.” He has taught thousands of teachers and students how to verify claims and sources through his workshops.

“Verified” is billed as a how-to guide that will teach people how to use the web to verify the web, quickly and efficiently. This concept has been tested in rigorous empirical studies, and it is accompanied by practices ordinary people can do – a set of flexible and easy-to-learn techniques that resolve simple questions quickly and inform difficult ones in not much more time.

In developing “web credibility,” Caulfield found allies in librarians. On the front lines of information literacy for decades, they knew that the older, checklist approaches to digital literacy had barely worked. University librarians began to adopt Caulfield’s SIFT methodology, and he made inroads in battling error with his various curricula, which have logged thousands of downloads. His collaboration with Civix Canada on a successful pilot included thousands of students and over 70 schools.

The approach Caulfield describes in “Verified” has been tested in many settings with people from all walks of life. To date, 13 studies involving nearly 10,000 participants, from middle school students to adults in the U.S., Canada, Sweden, Germany and the United Kingdom, have shown the effectiveness of the SIFT/Lateral Reading approach. In one of the most recent studies, students showed a six-fold increase in the use of fact-checking techniques and a five-fold increase in citations of appropriate context – after only seven hours of instruction. His methods have been featured in the New York Times, Wall Street Journal and the BBC, among other outlets, and appear on hundreds of college and university websites.