Media Verification and AI Literacy

Digital Verification and AI Literacy Checklist

1. Pause: What emotion or action does the content encourage?
2. Identify: Who created it? Is the author, organization, date, and original context visible?
3. Read laterally: Open independent sources before reading the page deeply.
4. Trace: Find the original document, data set, image, video, speech, law, or research paper.
5. Check evidence: Do the source and data actually support the headline or claim?
6. Verify media: Examine cropping, date, location, editing, metadata, and reverse-image results when available.
7. Check citations: Open every citation. AI-generated citations may be invented or mismatched.
8. Compare: Seek high-quality sources that disagree and explain the disagreement.
9. Document: Record search terms, URLs, dates, and what changed your conclusion.
10. Communicate uncertainty: Say what is known, likely, disputed, or unknown.