When it comes to fact-checking and adding context to news articles, journalists need to apply ‘lateral reading’ in order to broaden their knowledge.
But what is lateral reading? How does it differ from normal reading? How should journalists apply it to their work? And what are the benefits?
Lateral reading existed long before computers and the internet. In the days of notebooks, pens, typewriters, and paper documents, journalists would have access to a stack of reference books sitting on dusty shelves in the newsroom, which they would consult when a story broke.
These would include well-thumbed encyclopaedias, copies of Who’s Who, and various dictionaries, English language style books, and journalism guide books.
There would also be the newspaper’s own archive of previous editions, see our article on keeping records.
If a journalist didn’t have the book they needed they would put their coat on and nip down to the local library to research information. They would also call any of the newspaper’s contacts who were knowledgeable about the issue being covered.
Of course not all stories required lateral reading. A news editor would often throw a journalist a news (press) release about a forthcoming event or other non-contentious news item and order them to “knock out 250 words on that”.
The journalists might put a call in to any contact mentioned in the news release, but often they would do as they were told and rework the content to keep the news editor happy. After all, they were merely looking for material to fill vacant space on a page. That is not lateral reading.
However, if a news editor wanted a topic to be investigated then the journalist would have to do their research. The order from the news editor would probably be along the lines of “have a dig around this and see what you come up with”. At that point lateral reading kicked in.
Now, in the age of computers and the internet, lateral reading is understood to mean navigating a wide variety of online information simultaneously in order to check-facts and learn more about a topic.
It involves opening multiple tabs in your web browser to investigate the credibility of a source, rather than just reading the information on a single page (which is called “vertical reading”).
When you read ‘vertically’, you stay on the same webpage and assess its credibility based on what you can see. This can be misleading, as biased or unreliable sources often present themselves as trustworthy.
How to apply lateral reading
There are many organisations that have developed courses where journalists can learn about how to apply lateral reading such as Civic Online Reasoning (COR), the News Literacy Project and the Association of College & Research Libraries (ACRL).
But you don’t need to attend a course in order to start applying lateral reading effectively when working online. Try these steps:
- Open multiple tabs
- When coming across a claim, an article, or a source, open multiple tabs to:
- Investigate the website or organisation publishing the information.
- Research the author or source of the claim.
- Find other reliable sources covering the same topic.
- When coming across a claim, an article, or a source, open multiple tabs to:
- Investigate the source
- Before trusting information, research the source’s credibility:
- Search for the organisation on Wikipedia or in news articles.
- Check their “About” page for affiliations and biases.
- Look for past credibility issues (fact-checking sites might flag it).
- Before trusting information, research the source’s credibility:
- Cross-check information
- Find other reliable sources reporting on the same issue:
- Use fact-checking websites such as Snopes, PolitiFact, or Reuters Fact Check.
- Look for government reports, academic sources, or expert commentary.
- Be cautious if only partisan or obscure sites are reporting a claim.
- Find other reliable sources reporting on the same issue:
- Manipulative framing
- Compare how different outlets report the same facts:
- Look at how different sources describe the same event.
- Consider whether images, headlines, or quotes are used selectively.
- Be aware of emotionally charged language designed to sway opinion.
- Compare how different outlets report the same facts:
- Social media and user-generated content
- To fact-check viral claims:
- Reverse search images to check their origin, using tools such as Google Images and TinEye.
- Look for verification badges on social media accounts.
- Check timestamps – an old photo might be falsely used for a current event.
- To fact-check viral claims:
Conclusion
Lateral reading is a skill journalists need to develop in order to help them in their research, fact-checking, and context-building. This in turn helps them maintain their commitment to accuracy and credibility. In an era where misinformation and disinformation can easily mislead audiences, lateral reading remains a powerful tool in the pursuit of truth and responsible reporting.
