CRAAP Test – Chase Keller

I believe that the hardest CRAAP test criterion to evaluate accurately is authority. In an era of widespread information, accuracy becomes harder to evaluate. At the same time, though, it may be easier to detect misinformation, especially with more fact-checkers available (likely because of the increase in misinformation). When it comes to authority, most individuals read an article for its content. If you ask someone about what they retrieved from an article they read, they likely will not remember who wrote it and they will only remember the content of the article. As a result, the person will not think to question the authority of the writer.

I think it’s possible yet difficult to have a source meet all criteria and still be misleading or biased. For example, biased information is meant to be discredited through the purpose section of the test, but subtle bias may go unnoticed. To identify this, writers and source gatherers must be more careful when determining if a source passes the test.