Post-Election Responses and Continuing Civil Engagement

Infinite content surrounds us with an overwhelming circulation of political news, polls, videos, social media posts, memes, GIFs, and pop culture incorporation that makes it very difficult to recognize valid and accurate information. Information that is backed by credibility, research, and is open to criticism has been muddled down by what has been popularized as terms such as fake news, misinformation, alternative facts, and the 2016 Oxford Dictionary World of the Year "post-truth."

With so many media outlets reporting information on politics and specifically the election, a trend to focus on existence of content rather than accuracy has caused such a proliferation in disinformation. It has percolated into pop culture and dominated our nation's attention from trusted and distrusted news sources. 

There are several ways to verify that information you read is accurate including:

• Looking to your local elections officials for information and updates on election results.
  • Election officials page lookup.
  • Election officials twitter list to follow.

Behavioral Strategies for Combating Misinformation 

Ideas42 has compiled a helpful guide that outlines a multi-step process on how to evaluate information as credible. 

There are ways to combat misinformation amidst all of the media we are exposed to. Information Literacy stands to train and practice the individual to be critical of information that we are subjected to and look behind the content's sources, author, biases, and content publisher. 

One way to put this train of thought into practice is to use the CRAAP  (Currency, Relevance, Authority, Accuracy, Purpose) method and evaluate the information. 

CRAAP Method

* "CRAAP Test," Digital Literacy and Misinformation: Think Critically Tutorial, Meriam Library, Chico State University https://libguides.csuchico.edu/c.php?g=1091353&p=7967372