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Purdue Libraries and School of Information Studies News

Spring ’21 Course Spotlight on ILS 29500: Truth, Lies, and Trust: Credibility, Authority, and Quality in a Digital Age

October 29th, 2020

ILS 29500: Truth, Lies, and Trust: Credibility, Authority, and Quality in a Digital Age

Meeting Times: Thurs 2:30-3:20pm

Instructor:  John Fritch

This course examines concepts of trust and authority and uses them to promote critical thinking and assessments regarding credibility.  Authoritative information sources, evaluative criteria, and technical tools will be enumerated and discussed as students work through a research issue of personal interest.  Topics include: what is trust and why is it significant, what types of authority exist and what specifically is cognitive authority, how is in-person trust and authority different from digital trust, when does credibility matter and what are criteria for determining credibility, how and where is quality information found, techniques of the nefarious (cons, scams, spam, phishing, etc.), considerations of a skeptical consumer.