As a digital reading medium, the internet offers a wealth of information sources. This is an advantage but also a challenge to readers, who both cannot and should not assume that they will encounter genuine knowledge when reading and researching. Readers must therefore be sufficiently able to critically evaluate epistemically uncertain online information. This article focuses on the skills needed for this kind of evaluation and organises them as part of an initial theoretical framework into two groups of epistemic strategies. With various analytical focuses, first-hand evaluations serve to directly assess the validity of the content. Second-hand evaluations are indirect assessments of the content, drawing on additional information beyond the textual content in the respective focal document. Ideally, these evaluations will be substantiated by reasoning that demonstrates analysis and appropriate critique. This topic is addressed in the second theoretical framework, which is based on critical-analytical thinking.
The article concludes with four implications for reading instruction.