So-called "popular" or non-scholarly sources include such things as websites, blogs, newspapers, magazines or e-zines, social media, streaming services or television/radio, etc. These types of sources ALWAYS need to be evaluated. That's because popular sources could be heavily biased, or even non-factual. Anybody can pretend to be an expert on anything. Popular sources can also be wildly out-of-date: some online information lingers for years or even decades after it's no longer useful.
When evaluating popular sources online, one of the best strategies you can use is called lateral reading. With lateral reading, you don't spend very much time on the website itself, but instead explore the rest of the web to see what other people are saying about the source.
Lateral reading asks you to consider:
View the video below for more information on lateral reading.
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