Source criticism is a tool to help us decide whether information feels credible or reasonable. Almost all of the information you take in is presented based on someone’s opinion of the incident. That is why it is good to find out more about the same incident, but from different sources.

Source criticism and the internet

Source criticism is particularly important on the internet, especially if you get most of your information from Facebook or other social media. Your feed is controlled by something called algorithms, which adjust your feed based on your taste. That is why it is almost impossible to get a broad perspective when only looking at your own feed. This is against the basic principle of source criticism.

Because of our age, we are more or less vulnerable to disinformation. 

We are more or less knowledgeable about how to practice source criticism on the internet. According to research, younger people are more used to using the internet and are therefore more resistant to fake news and influence campaigns. 

The nonprofit organization Cyber Hate Examiner (Näthatsgranskaren) works with analyzing and reporting hate crimes on the internet. They report that of the 700 judgements that they have helped bring to justice in court, the average age of the convicted parties is 54 for men and 57 for women. These numbers are from a small selection of a very large group, but they still support the conclusion that young people are more resistant. 

This is a remarkably high average age of the convicted people in this category which is important to remember because cyber hate is often described as a problem for young people. Of the 700 convictions, 80% are men and 20% are women. Unfortunately, there are no statistics on more than two genders.

Practice source criticism on the internet

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