Get quick context: it can take as little as thirty seconds -- seriously! -- Cheap signals: Or, how not to get duped -- Google: the bestie you thought you knew -- Lateral reading: using the Web to read the Web -- Reading the room: benefiting from expertise when you have only a bit yourself -- Show me the evidence: why scholarly sources are better than promotional materials, newsletters, and random tweets -- Wikipedia: not what your middle school teacher told you -- Video games: the dirty tricks of deceptive video -- Stealth advertising: when ads masquerade as news -- Once more with feeling: using your emotions to find the truth -- Conclusion: Critical ignoring -- Postscript: Large language models, ChatGPT, and the future of verification

"These days, the world wide web has become the Wild West. We are faced with a seemingly endless source of information, all of it difficult to evaluate. Trusted sources can be full of ads, bad actors can slip under the radar, and seemingly questionable databases might hold a helpful treasure trove. Historian Sam Wineburg and media literacy guru Mike Caulfield are here to help with this informative, approachable guide to navigating the internet. With this illustrated tool kit, readers will learn to identify red flags, get quick context, and make better use of common tools like Google and Wikipedia that have the ability to help and hinder in equal measure"--