What is “lateral reading”?

What is "lateral reading"?

Unit 4, Session 3

1. Introduction

Lateral reading is widely considered to be an integral skill for reading competently online. As such, we have two goals in this lesson:

(1) to define and demonstrate lateral reading generically, and

(2) to show you how the tools offered by Ground News can help you do it faster and more reliably.

Ground News offers three distinct tools for helping you read laterally about hundreds of different media outlets:

(1) a media bias rating,

(2) ownership information, and

(3) a factuality score.

Each of these offers distinct contributions to your assessment of the quality and reliability of any individual institution. This session will guide you through each of these tools using one particular news outlet—the New York Post—as a test case. (The Post was not selected for any special reason, and the same activity could be used to test any number of outlets.) Be sure to follow each step of the instructions in turn, and refer back as necessary to the vocabulary defined in section 2.

2. Vocabulary to know

Plan to take time on your own to master this vocabulary. Notice the materials tab above, with links to PDF flashcards and our Quizlet classroom, for a variety of ways to learn and review.

lateral reading

judging a source by incorporating what others say about it, rather than merely what it says about itself; reading about a source in order to help you judge its reliability

vertical reading

judging a source based on what it says about itself, rather than incorporating what others say about it; reading from a source, without reading about that source as well

bias

a prejudgment about some person, group, idea, or other thing, often considered to be unfair

media bias

a generic term identifying the way media institutions can demonstrate a consistent preference for or against particular causes and agendas; these are often political, and are often perceived to be based on prior ideological commitments, rather than the details of any particular story; these biases are revealed in the stories the institutions choose to cover or ignore, the language they use to cover them, the way they frame them, the extent to which they overlook contradictory evidence or rely on selective evidence, and so on

political spectrum

a big-picture way of conceiving of the possible range of political opinions in a given society by arranging them relative to each other on a line going from the far left to the far right (in the United States the left side of the spectrum is generally associated with the Democratic Party, and the right side of the spectrum is generally associated with the Republican Party)

conservative

tending to prefer slow social and political change; favoring policies perceived to preserve traditional values; usually portrayed on the “right” side of the political spectrum; in the U.S., usually identified with the Republican Party

liberal

tending to be open to social and political change; favoring progressive policies perceived to promote social welfare; usually portrayed on the “left” side of the political spectrum; in the U.S. usually identified with the Democratic Party

3. Lateral reading defined

Watch the video on lateral reading, pausing as necessary to review or discuss key concepts. Bear in mind that you will have plenty of time to practice the skills covered in this video as you work your way through the activity that follows.

Ground News and the Nomadic Professor on Lateral Reading

4. Advise your teacher

Let’s pretend that your teacher is not very good at using the Internet, and she’s asked you for help. When she asked Google why gas was so expensive during the summer of 2022, she got more answers than she knew what to do with: war, policy error, COVID-19, supply and demand, climate change, energy companies, Biden, not-Biden. Picking the right answer felt like closing her eyes and throwing a dart in the general direction of her target: ultimately her answer was going to be totally random. Not knowing what else to do, she chose an article from a source she was pretty sure she’d heard of before, but she’s still not sure if she chose a good one. Your job is to help her answer that question.

But you’re not going to give her advice about the quality or plausibility of the answer her article puts forward—in fact, you may not even end up reading the article she chose. In this activity your only job is to tell her what potential pitfalls she should pay attention to based on the institution the article came from: the New York Post.

The article she chose is an opinion piece with the title, “Yes, you can blame Biden for crazy gas prices—here’s why,” by an author named Michael Shellenberger. Open the article in your browser, then dive into your full investigation by answering the questions in your lateral reading handout. Pay attention to your teacher’s instructions about what work to do at home, what work to do at school, and what classroom activities will accompany each stage of your work.

5. Summary and Conclusion

Reading laterally is a way of investigating the credibility and point of view of one source by checking to see what other sources say about it. Ground News offers three tools for helping you investigate particular sources: a media bias rating, ownership information, and a factuality score. These indicators are an excellent place to start looking into the credibility and point of view of the sources you find, in a way that goes beyond superficial indicators like the top-level domain name, the overall look and feel of a source, or the presence of typographical errors. They can give you insights into political biases, institutional affiliations, funding, and publishing practices that might otherwise take you a lot of time, research, and reading to discover. Screening your sources in this way can help you curate a healthy and balanced information diet that includes strong arguments and counterarguments over headlines and claims that matter.

Follow your teacher’s instructions for how to conclude your work on lateral reading, and what types of assessments to expect on the terms, concepts, and skills covered in this session.

6. Quiz

Click here to begin the quiz for this session.

Media Literacy glossary
Media Literacy Quizlet classroom (with full version of course)
Worksheet: Lateral Reading
Worksheet rubric
PDF of article used in this activity
Lateral Reading flashcards: single-sided / double-sided
There is one required outside text students will utilize to write an argumentative paper in this course. They may utilize any edition, and can find used copies on sites like Amazon, Thriftbooks, and AbeBooks.

Schick, Kurt and Laura Schubert. So What? The Writer’s Argument. New York: Oxford UP, 2017.

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What is “lateral reading”?