There is so much information online it  can be really hard to process everything  

that we see. And it's not always  clear who has produced the content,  

and for what reason, and  whether it can be trusted.

Historically people didn't have to worry so much  about the reputation of the media that they relied on. Those sources were limited and content was  coming directly from an authoritative source.

But online there are so many different  groups publishing and sharing information  

through different channels and all the  different motives. These include:  

news organizations. governments,  political campaigns, businesses,  

advocacy groups, think tanks, universities,  community groups, individuals, and more. Very  

often we get information shared by  friends, family, or celebrities. And  

while we recognize the person who shared it we  don't know anything about the original source.

So when we're consuming information it's  really important to gain some context  

about the information source, including the  purpose behind the message. When investigating  

sources there are key questions we want  to ask: One is, who's responsible for the  

information that we're looking at? And two  is, what is the reputation of the source?

These are simple skills that we can use  to find answers to these questions which  

Mike will begin to show you in the  next video. You might be surprised  

by how simple it is to build a  habit of investigating sources.