Sharing with integrity

Let’s talk about sharing for a minute. It’s the place where consuming media overlaps with creating it, and it’s where we can have positive impact by doing it right.

CNN’s Brian Stelter once said, “Triple check before you share.” He was right, and still is, but it’s unlikely that most people will take that great advice.

Triple check before you share

We can do better even if we don’t triple check. The most important habit we can develop is to check what you’re thinking about sharing. When it comes to news articles or posts, never share something you haven’t read yourself; that is, click through to the article and see if it’s legitimate.

Mike Caufield, a professor at Washington State University Vancouver, has developed a technique he calls SIFT.

If you can adopt the SIFT technique, you’ll share better information, and your friends will consider you a better source of information. Bonus: You’ll be better informed yourself. We’ll dig into SIFT more in Module 2.