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Investigate the Source: Should we let Wired tell us all about hot peppers?

SKILL: Investigate the Source

DIFFICULTY: Simple

SUBJECT(S): Pop Culture, Science

Posted: November 4, 2022

Before we dive into a spicy series of TikToks about hot peppers, we'll check the reputation of the source — Wired.com — and learn that it's an established professional source

Related Lesson

Verification Skills Lesson 2: Investigate the Source (sign-in required)

Link to Example

How hot is a California Reaper compared to other hot peppers? (TikTok)
Screenshot of Wired Tiktok about hot peppers.

About the Example

Teacher note: If you cannot access TikTok, click here to view the video uploaded to our YouTube channel that you can share with your students.

There’s a huge range in quality of sources posting on TikTok. Some are professional media sources producing high-quality work. This example about spicy peppers comes from Wired.com, which a quick Wikipedia check will show to be a source we can rely on.

 



Activities

  1. Give students the TikTok video and ask them to identify the source.
    • The source name appears in the handle/username: wired.com
    • Since this isn’t an article, we can’t use the Wikipedia trick but we can just search the keywords “wired.com wikipedia” to float the Wikipedia entry for Wired to the top of our search result.
  2. Ask students what relevant information they find in the Wikipedia article, and if they think the source is credible.
  3. Here are some signals that, taken together, help to paint the picture of Wired as a source worth relying on:
    • Wired is a well-known US magazine “that focuses on how emerging technologies affect culture, the economy, and politics.”
    • It is owned by Conde Nast, which owns some of the largest publications in the US, including The New Yorker.
    • It’s won numerous awards, has a large budget, has been in operation since 1993.
    • Fun fact: it coined the term “crowdsourcing”


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