Beyond the Headline: Information & Media Literacy

Evaluate online information with evidence-based habits: identify the claim, investigate the source, read laterally, triangulate evidence and teach judgement rather than superficial checklists.

• Separate the claim, source and evidence — Before asking whether a page is credible, identify exactly what is being claimed and what evidence would support it.
• Read laterally before you read deeply — When the source itself is uncertain, leave the page and investigate who is behind it through the wider web.
• Triangulate instead of hunting for one perfect source — Stronger conclusions usually come from comparing independent evidence, not finding a single page that looks authoritative.
• Treat images, video and screenshots as claims with context — Visual evidence can be authentic and still be misleading when time, place, sequence or framing is missing.
• Teach adaptable judgement, not a credibility checklist — Rigid rules fail in an information environment designed to imitate credibility.