I have been a reference and research librarian. I’ve been a teacher. I was on the board of Twin Cities Daily Planet, an online citizen journalism newspaper, for many years. Information literacy is a top priority for me. When I read an article or report, I look at who wrote, who paid for and who published it. Lately when I’ve been seeing a new type of article – the sponsored article; and now I’m seeing the sponsored article morph into partner content, So. I thought it might be helpful to share a checklist of things I do when reading an article to assess the purpose.

It all starts at the beginning. Does the headline (or social media link) make sense? For example, you see a headline about the Vikings losing and you just watched them win. Seems fishy and might merit some investigation. Here are some things to consider:

1. Check the date. I have seen old articles reemerge after an online news source upgrades their backend. The article can look new to a news aggregator, such as Google Alert. With timely events, check the time the update was published. Was the game actually over?
2. Check the publisher. Are you looking at the MN Star Tribune, a Viking superfan blog or have you wandered into a Packer online forum? On a website look at the “about” section to see who they are and what their mission is. For a report or a book, you might look for the funder or sponsor of the work in the same way. Is the book about the Vikings written about a coach with a summer camp and is he (or she) mentioning that camp a lot? Consider their perspective and goal for the article.
3. Check the type of article or resource you are reading. Not everything in the newspaper is “just the facts ma’am.”
   1. News article: reports on a news event in a timely fashion, generally sticking to the facts
   2. Feature article: a more in-depth article that often includes quotes, context and/or a narrative. They aren’t just sticking to the facts, they use quotes, they use narrative to frame the story
   3. Editorial: is written by the editors of the publication
   4. Letter to the Editor: is a letter written by a reader to the editor often sharing their thoughts, opinions or stories in response to a recently published article.
   5. Op-Ed (Opposite the Editorial page): similar to a letter to the editor but often longer and addresses a topic or issue more broadly. Often submitted by authors who consider themselves experts on that topic; they share their thoughts, opinions or stories.
   6. Sponsored content: paid, promotional content designed to look like part of a publication. I have seen this also labeled as partner content. The “sponsored” or “partner” label is not always prominent. A loose relative to paid content is paid search results. Do a search on Google, especially for something like [Duluth hotel] and you will see the top results are labeled as sponsored.
4. Check the author. Similar to checking the publisher, you can usually click on their name for the publication bio. If it’s a letter to the editor or sponsored content, there will likely be a link to more information on them or their affiliation. Or look them up on Google. Most reporters will have a history or past article and/or affiliations. Recently, I tried to check out a reporter on a new publication (ironically focused on AI) and I could not find them on Google, which was highly unusual.
5. Check the cited resources. This is going an extra step but depending on the situation, it’s helpful. Check out the sources (reports or other articles) that the author has cited and put them through the same checklist.
6. Make sure you are looking at the right source. Some folks will go so far as to spoof a legitimate publisher to post their information. (Or even more likely to try to get your credit card information.) So if something still doesn’t look right – check the domain name. If you are looking for the Vikings make sure you are looking at [https://www.vikings.com/] NOT [https://www.vickings.com/ or https://www.vikings.us or https://www.mnvikings.com/%5D. Also please don’t try those last three addresses – I made them up, but they might go to sources that are trying to spoof the site.

I hope that’s helpful. Always in the back of my mind I ask myself why this person is sharing this information. Is it a journalist, a scientist, a lobbyist, a sales person or a community member? And what is their agenda?

I don’t go through the checklist every time. I have my trusted resources and that’s a manageable way for me to feel confident with information. But I do use this checklist a couple of times a week with new publications. A year ago, I used it less often.

To learn more about information literacy, especially if you are in a position to teach or influence others, check out the American Library Association (ALA) resources on the topic.